Preferential market access to India — the kind typically reserved for least-developed economies — is what Dhaka has formally requested be extended beyond the point at which Bangladesh graduates out of that classification. Among the demands put forward are the lifting of curbs on its goods moving through Indian land-border crossings and the scrapping of anti-dumping levies applied to jute products and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film.

Those demands were put forward during the 16th session of the Bangladesh-India Joint Working Group on Trade, according to an official familiar with the proceedings. Agenda items at the session — which took place after an extended interval — ranged from trade barriers and land port infrastructure through to connectivity and the alignment of product standards.

When Bangladesh moves out of least-developed-country classification, tariff barriers of roughly 20 per cent on certain goods stand to replace the zero-duty terms its exporters currently enjoy under preferential trade arrangements with India, putting pressure on the price competitiveness of those shipments. Clothing exports make up a substantial portion of what Bangladesh ships to India, with farm produce and seafood rounding out the trade picture.

Among the requests put forward, the delegation from Dhaka called for a loosening of the restrictions that govern goods moving through land ports into India, a streamlining of the certification process administered by the Bureau of Indian Standards, and upgrades to the physical infrastructure at land customs stations — covering access roads, storage facilities, and quarantine areas. Among the demands put forward were swifter processing of goods at land border crossings and expanded throughput capacity, both aimed at bringing down freight costs and easing transit bottlenecks.

Expanded truck access through Indian territory — allowing Bangladeshi vehicles to reach Nepal and Bhutan — formed part of the delegation's push to strengthen cross-border freight connectivity across the region.

Objections from India centred on a cluster of trade friction points with Bangladesh's caretaker administration — among them, curbs placed on cotton shipments from India, elevated duty rates applied to goods including fruits, rice, and iron and steel, and the operation of approved-commodity lists governing land-border crossings in the northeastern states, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Trade entering the northeastern region through land ports operates under a positive-list framework, meaning only pre-approved categories of goods are allowed through, whereas West Bengal's cross-border arrangements follow a negative-list approach that bars only those items explicitly named as restricted. A move toward the negative-list framework has been put forward by India as a way to level the commercial playing field for those engaged in trade.

Reopening border haats, integrated check posts, and land customs stations — all of which closed under Muhammad Yunus's interim administration — formed part of the demands put forward by New Delhi.

Trade figures drawn from Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue show that outbound shipments to India reached $1.75 billion during 2025-26, while inbound goods from that same trading partner carried a value of $10.96 billion. Trade data place India in the position of Bangladesh's second-largest supplier of imported goods, trailing only China, a gap in the flow of commerce between the two countries that the numbers themselves lay out without further interpretation.