Dhaka/Washington, Feb 9 (.) Dhaka has managed to successfully renegotiate US’ reciprocal tariffs, lowering it from the current 20% rate down to 19%, with Bangladesh and the US signing a trade agreement, said Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman post the signing.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Rahman said, that as part of the agreement, Washington has granted either duty-free or lower duty access to over 2,500 Bangladeshi products, while Dhaka will simultaneously be charging lower tariffs to 4,400 American products, or otherwise grant them tariff free status.
Additionally, those Bangladeshi garment exports manufactured from American cotton will also be given zero duty on export to the USA, Rahman added.
Furthermore, Dhaka’s pharmaceutical products, fisheries, particle board, and other food items will also enjoy duty-free status in the US market.
Signing the agreement from Bangladesh’s side were Commerce Advisor Sheikh Bashir Uddin and National Security Advisor Khalilur Rahman, while on the US front Ambassador Jamieson Greer, US Trade Representative, signed the agreement, according to a statement released by the Chief Advisor’s Office.
Negotiations on the reciprocal tariff agreement between Dhaka and Washington spanned over nine months since April last year, the statement read.
Reportedly, ambassador Greer lauded Chief Advisor Md Yunus for his “overarching leadership of the negotiation process” and praised the Bangladeshi negotiating team for its “incredible efforts.”
“This agreement will fit Bangladesh into US trade policy,” he added.
After signing the agreement, Commerce Advisor Bashir Uddin said “The agreement marked a historically new level in our bilateral economic and trade relations. It will provide substantially enhanced access for Bangladesh and the US to each other’s respective markets.”
This marks the second time the US is reducing the Trump tariffs, which was already lowered from its initial 37% rate down to 20% back in August last year.
Washington further extended its commitments to establishing a bilateral mechanism for certain textile and apparel goods from Bangladesh using US-produced cotton and man-made fibre to receive zero reciprocal tariff in the US market.
“The reduction of reciprocal tariff will grant further advantage to our exporters, while zero reciprocal tariff on specific textile and apparel exports from Bangladesh using US inputs will give substantial added impetus to our garments sector,” said National Security Advisor Rahman, Dhaka’s chief negotiator on the matter.
The agreement was approved by the Council of Advisors and will be operational once notifications are issued by the two sides.
Present during the signing were the commerce secretary of Bangladesh and Assistant US Trade Representative Brendan Lynch.
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