Bangladesh risks losing ‘win-win’ edge in US market
Once a ‘rising star’ in global trade, Bangladesh now faces uncertainty as President Donald Trump’s radical restructuring of US trade policy threatens Dhaka’s long-standing ‘win-win’ relationship with Washington.
Economists and business leaders believe that Bangladesh may lose its once cherished ‘win-win’ position in the US market following the latest announcement regarding tariffs to be imposed on Bangladeshi goods by Trump.
In April, the US announced a 37% trade tariff on Bangladeshi goods, before placing a 90-day pause on imposing them to allow for negotiations to take place that runs out on Wednesday (July 9).
On Monday, ahead of that deadline, Trump announced a new rate for Bangladeshi that was just a 2% reduction on his original announcement – 35%, to be effective from August 1. But experts say the damage may have already been done.
The burden of this new reality is expected to fall mainly on Bangladesh’s garments sector, where key competitor Vietnam have had their tariff slashed from 46% to just 20%.
In order to secure that reduction, it dropped all tariffs on goods imported from the US (zero duties).
Although Bangladesh (and other countries) was granted a 90-day window for negotiations after the April announcement, no significant progress was made, say analysts.
I don't think it matters much. Bangladesh as a country made its move when it opened up the bookmaking business. A lot of people from all over the world use the access to 1 x beat. This provides significant income to the budget and gamblers benefit from the fact that the betting odds are always high.