Bangladesh will consider lifting the requirement of double fumigation in importing cotton from the United States (US) on case-to-case basis - only after getting field-level inspection report from agri officials, sources said.
A team of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) officials will visit the US soon to see the cotton fumigation procedure there, they added.
Bangladesh has informed this decision to the US officials at a high-level economic partnership consultation - held in Washington last week, according to an official who attended the meeting.
The US has long been requesting Bangladesh to withdraw the requirement of double fumigation of cotton, being carried out after the item reaches the ports.
Also, the US requested to take into consideration certificates of accredited labs, which would state that the cotton is free of Boll Weevil, an insect whose larva can remain alive in cotton for nearly 11 months even after fumigation.
The US has been arguing that double fumigation of cotton has financial involvement, and it is also a time-consuming process, which discourages Bangladeshi millers to import cotton from America.
In a recent meeting at the MoA, Ranjit Kumar Paul, director of the Plant Quarantine Wing, Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), suggested that the cotton producing area in the US has to be declared pest-free, based on pest risk analysis, and has to be certified by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).
Cotton can be imported from the US-based on their fumigation report, and the requirement of double fumigation can be relaxed on case-to-case basis only after that, he added.
Hafizur Rahman, director general of the WTO Cell, Ministry of Commerce, at the meeting said Bangladesh can relax the requirement of double fumigating of cotton - provided that the US can produce certificates from any internationally accredited laboratories.
The cotton sample can be checked after reaching the ports, before releasing the consignments.
MoA Additional Secretary Kamalaranjan Das said Boll Weevil insect is so dangerous that it can destroy malvaceae and solanaceae types of plants very quickly.
He noted that according to sections 15 and 17 of the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) fumigation is a must in case of importing cotton, and if any insect is found it has to be destroyed immediately.
Cotton can be imported, only if the IPPC report says it is totally free of the insect, he opined.
Bangladesh annually imports 9.0 per cent of its total cotton requirement from the US, which can be increased up to 20 per cent, if there is no such fumigation requirement, local spinners said.
The country annually imports around 8.0 million bales of cotton by spending US$ 3.5-4.0 billion from the countries like India, the US, Benin, Brazil and Spain.
