The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) has officially partnered with the Bangladesh Trade Facilitation Project, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.

On Wednesday, the organiations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at BSTI office to improve Bangladesh's international standing and strengthen its institutional capacity and procedures for cross-border trade in agricultural and food products.

The collaborative efforts seek to expand the variety, quantity, and value of agricultural exports while simultaneously reducing import time for agro-products.

During the MoU signing event, Md. Abdus Sattar, Director General, BSTI recognized the vibrant support of USDA BTF to transform BSTI into a smart organization in line with the government vision.

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He emphasized that activities planned under the MoU will make BSTI equipped to contribute to the economic journey of Bangladesh, according to a media release.

This MoU will be a milestone and will set the stage for a promising future of enhanced trade facilitation in the agricultural sector, benefiting both local producers and international trading partners, he said.

Michael J Parr, Chief of Party of the USDA program, expressed his hope that this MoU will smoothen the process of implementing four pillars of trade facilitation that is transparency, harmonization, simplification and standardization and will significantly contribute to the economy of Bangladesh.

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Fuad M Khalid Hossen, Deputy Chief of Party, BTF Project in his keynote presentation mentioned that this partnership will focus on enhancing various aspects of quality assurance and regulatory practices which includes strengthening engagement in Codex, developing risk-based compliance management, improving laboratories and testing capacities, standardizing the halal certification process, developing capacity for mutual recognition agreements (MRA), activating the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Enquiry Point, and promoting initiatives by BSTI.

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