India, Nepal and Bhutan have access to Bangladesh's sea ports.
A dispute over container handling charges between the depots and global shipping firms has threatened to disrupt the country’s trade from next week after the depot owners took a hard-line over fee-hike and arrears.
Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA) president Qayum Khan said the depots would not handle any containers of the Main Line Operators (MLOs) from July 15 until the latter agree to new handling charges and clear arrear bills amounting to Tk900 million.
Leading MLOs operating in the country are the Danish Maersk Line, APL, the French CMA-CGM, Sea-consortium, Hapag Lloyd and PIL.