Bangladesh set to sign trade agreement with US this August

Bangladesh to Finalise Trade Agreement with US in August, Imposing 20% Supplementary Duty

Bangladesh is set to finalise and sign a new trade agreement with the United States this month, under which an additional 20 percent supplementary duty will be imposed on Bangladeshi exports to the US market.

The deal, still undergoing final revisions, will be signed once both governments reach a consensus, according to Commerce Advisor Sheikh Bashir Uddin. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) is currently drafting the agreement, a process expected to take two to three weeks, after which it may be made public.

Confirming the timeline, Golam Mortoza, Press Minister at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, D.C., told bdnews24.com that finalisation could take up to three weeks.

The supplementary duty follows three months of negotiations during which the US agreed to reduce the tariff on Bangladeshi products from 35 percent to 20 percent. With this change, the overall tariff burden on Bangladeshi goods entering the US will now total around 35 percent, combining both regular and supplementary duties. The new rate will come into effect on August 7, despite the agreement not yet being signed.

The US has requested notification to the World Trade Organization once the agreement is signed. Bangladesh will respond to the draft upon receipt, officials said, noting that the agreement will only proceed after mutual approval. A joint statement from both governments is expected once the deal is finalised.

Speaking in Washington on Friday, Commerce Advisor Bashir Uddin confirmed that the agreement will be made public once signed and approved by both sides. “A joint statement may be released after signing, and the text will be published in line with the right to information,” he said. He also acknowledged that, despite a confidentiality agreement, parts of the draft were leaked during negotiations.

“There’s nothing in the agreement that compromises our national interest,” Bashir said. “We’ve made sure to remove any elements that could indirectly harm the country.”

According to the leaked draft, the agreement covers a broad range of issues, including tariff and non-tariff measures, greater access for US products—particularly automobiles—transparency in revenue collection, enhanced trade technologies, labour rights in the garment sector, enforcement of intellectual property rights, value addition requirements, wage payment timelines, trade union rights, national security provisions, and strategies to reduce the trade deficit.

The US has cited national security to justify both the countervailing tariffs and the need for confidentiality in the negotiations. “The US framed the entire agreement within the scope of its national security concerns,” Bashir said.

To meet the 20 percent tariff threshold, Bangladesh is expected to increase imports of US wheat, LNG, food grains, cotton, and soybean oil. The agreement also includes a potential purchase of 25 Boeing aircraft, although Bashir indicated that the Boeing deal was not a focus during negotiations.

“They didn’t seriously push for the Boeing sale in the talks. It didn’t come up even once,” he said, adding that Boeing’s limited production capacity means the earliest possible delivery would be 2037.

Instead, the US showed more consistent interest in expanding its agricultural and food exports to Bangladesh, which currently imports between $15 billion and $20 billion worth of food products annually from various countries.