Bangladesh and the United States are set to hold final negotiations today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday) in Washington to reach a resolution on the US-proposed Reciprocal Tariff Agreement, a key issue affecting Bangladesh's largest single-country export market.
To attend the high-stakes meeting with the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin departed Dhaka for Washington on Wednesday evening.
Earlier, during a meeting on June 26, the USTR reportedly declined Bangladesh's proposals to cap tariff rates on its exports to the US at 10 percent.
In that meeting, Dhaka had asked the USTR to provide a tariff schedule listing the products for which it seeks zero-duty access from Bangladesh, but as of Wednesday evening, the US had not provided the requested document, Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman said.
"In the absence of the US tariff schedule [an official list that specifies tariff rates applied to different imported or exported goods], negotiations will proceed based on the draft Reciprocal Tariff Agreement previously shared by the US," he said.
"The commerce adviser headed to the US for the negotiations. We are very much on track. We will continue talks until the last moment to reach a resolution."
On April 2, US President Donald Trump imposed high reciprocal tariffs on Bangladesh and other countries. Later, he announced a suspension of these tariffs for three months, which will expire on July 9.
Bd-pratidin English/FNC
