India has imposed stringent restrictions on imports of ready-made garments (RMG), processed foods, and select goods from Bangladesh via land ports, effective immediately, in a bold trade policy shift.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, issued a notification barring these items from entering through Land Customs Stations (LCSs) and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, and West Bengal’s Changrabandha and Fulbari posts. Instead, RMG imports are now permitted only through Nhava Sheva and Kolkata seaports.

The banned items include fruit-flavored and carbonated drinks, cotton and cotton yarn waste, plastic and PVC finished goods (excluding industrial inputs like pigments and granules), and wooden furniture.

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Exemptions apply to fish, LPG, edible oil, crushed stone, and goods transiting through India to Nepal and Bhutan. The move, impacting Bangladesh’s $700 million RMG exports to India—93% of which rely on land ports—follows Dhaka’s April 2025 ban on Indian yarn imports via land routes, alongside restrictions on Indian rice exports through key ICPs.

India’s decision, seen as retaliatory, aims to bolster northeastern manufacturing under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative, addressing Bangladesh’s “unreasonably high” transit charges and market access barriers that stifle the region’s industrial growth.

Bilateral trade, valued at $16 billion in 2022-23, has been strained since the ouster of Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, with the Yunus-led interim government’s policies, including banning the Awami League, deepening tensions.

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