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This dissertation, meticulously investigates the multifaceted challenges hindering optimal trade relations between these two geographically proximate nations. Despite strong historical, cultural, and economic ties, the full potential of bilateral trade remains unrealized due to significant infrastructural bottlenecks and escalating environmental concerns. The study identifies key infrastructural impediments, including congested land ports (such as Petrapole-Benapole, where crossings can take up to 138 hours compared to less than six hours in East Africa), limited customs counters, and inefficient manual processing. Outdated and inadequate rail and road networks further exacerbate delays, increase logistics costs, and reduce competitiveness for businesses on both sides. Inland waterways, despite the existence of the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT), remain underutilized due to issues like siltation and a scarcity of modern port facilities. These domestic limitations have broader implications, disrupting global supply chains, particularly for Bangladesh's crucial ready-made garment (RMG) exports, and diminishing their global competitiveness. Furthermore, inefficient customs procedures, a lack of harmonization in product standards, and nonintegrated digital systems contribute to significant non-tariff barriers. Recent unilateral actions, such as India revoking transshipment privileges for Bangladeshi garment shipments, further underscore the fragility of existing trade protocols and the urgent need for streamlined, mutually agreed-upon procedures. Compounding these logistical challenges are considerable environmental costs. Increased cross-border road transport contributes to higher air pollution from idling trucks and elevated carbon footprints due to inefficient logistics. Rapid growth in export-oriented industries often leads to severe water pollution from untreated industrial effluents discharged into transboundary rivers like the Teesta, Ganges, and Brahmaputra. Unsustainable resource use, such as the transportation of coal to the Rampal Power Plant near the Sundarbans, risks environmental degradation through oil spills and mangrove damage. The absence of proper e-waste regulations for informally traded electronic goods also poses significant environmental hazards. These transboundary environmental issues necessitate robust bilateral cooperation, which is often hindered by inadequate legal enforcement and implementation gaps. The work employs a doctrinal research method, systematically analyzing existing legal frameworks, policies, and bilateral agreements, including WTO/GATT frameworks, to identify inconsistencies, ambiguities, and gaps. While agreements like the India-Bangladesh Trade and Transport Facilitation Agreement (TTFA) and WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) provide a legal foundation for trade facilitation, their effectiveness is hampered by slow execution, institutional resistance, and a lack of explicit, enforceable mandates for sustainable infrastructure. Domestic environmental laws, though well-framed, are often ineffectively enforced in trade-related contexts, and bilateral agreements frequently omit specific environmental safeguards. The study concludes that the existing legal provisions are fragmented and lack operational teeth, particularly in addressing transboundary environmental externalities. To foster a more resilient, efficient, and environmentally responsible trade relationship, the dissertation proposes several key strategies: accelerating targeted infrastructure investment, enhancing customs streamlining and digitalization through interoperable systems and harmonized procedures, rigorously integrating environmental sustainability into trade policy (including strengthened EIAs and pollution control norms), and bolstering regional cooperation mechanisms beyond mere bilateral agreements.
Keywords: India-Bangladesh trade, infrastructural bottlenecks, environmental concerns, trade facilitation, WTO/GATT, transport emissions, cross-border pollution, sustainable trade, bilateral agreements, legal frameworks.
