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The Centre for Policy Dialogue on Wednesday said that Bangladesh was lagging behind in securing the geographical identification on the country’s products due its inaction in this connection.

The local think-tank said that Bangladesh would not be able to take economic advantage of its own products if the country did not proactively secure the GI tag of the traditional products.

‘Others would take hold of markets with our products by selling the reputation,’ CPD executive director Fahmida Khatun said at a media briefing titled ‘The Sunderbans honey now India’s geographical indication (GI) product’ at the CPD office in the capital on the day.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of the CPD, said that the Bagerhat deputy commissioner filed an application with the authorities concerned for the GI tag of the Sunderbans honey on August 7, 2017.

There has been no development on the issue since then, while India secured the tag on January 2, 2024 after filing application four years later than Bangladesh, on July 12, 2021.

‘What do we blame for this, the negligence of our administration, or the bureaucratic complexity?’ Debapriya questioned.

He said that Bangladesh had the chance to object while India was processing to certify the Sunderbans honey as its GI product, but the country did not take the chance.

‘There are a few reasons for this, people involved with the production of this honey are usually marginalised. Their voice does not reach far. Also, the institutions that have the duty to monitor these issues lack efficiency, capability and manpower,’ he said.

He added that Bangladesh and India needed an identical law structure regarding the geographical identification tag on products while addressing the recently emerged issue of India securing GI certification of the Sunderbans honey.

‘We availed the information through a tweet by the West Bengal Forest Department on May 16. Otherwise we could not have even known that India secured the GI tag on a product that is primarily produced by us, also the majority of Sunderbans’ territory lies within Bangladesh,’ Debapriya said.

The West Bengal Forest Development Corporation Limited applied for GI rights for the Sunderbans honey on July 12, 2021, and the GI tag was issued on January 2, 2024, he said referring to the tweet.

He said, ‘This is not the end. Many more issues will emerge soon which could even include fables and medicinal plants of Bangladesh. The country should look for ways for joint protection of shared GI with India and put in place the legal framework to avoid tensions.’

Bangladesh’s Department of Patent, Designs and Trademark has listed 31 GI products as of April 30 that excludes the Sunderbans honey.

The think-tank urged the government to join the European Union’s Regional Agreement and the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement, 2015.

Initiating discussions on such issues would be possible on submitting joint applications under the law for all trans-border GIs once both the countries sign up for the Geneva Act, Debapriya said.

He further said that the productivity of the country could not flourish if intellectual property was not protected.

Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow of the CPD, said, ‘Everything comes to economic value at the end.’

‘It should be seen as a value chain, where we have to conduct follow up activities for economical profits after securing the GI tag on our products,’ he said.

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