Staff Reporter:
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus yesterday sent a letter to US President Donald Trump re-questing him to postpone the application of a 37 percent tariff on Bangladeshi products in the US mar-ket.
The Chief Adviser’s Office (CAO) confirmed it yesterday.
Chief Adviser Prof Yunus has written a letter to US President Donald J Trump requesting him to post-pone the application of US reciprocal tariff measures on Bangladesh for three months to allow the inter-im government to smoothly implement its initiative to substantially increase US exports to Bangladesh, said a statement issued by the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing.
“We are the first country to take such a pro-active initiative”, he said in his letter, citing the visit of High Representative Dr Khalilur Rahman to Washington DC in February.
Bangladesh is also the first country to enter into a multi-year agreement to import liquefied natural gas from the US.
The centerpiece of Bangladesh’s actions is to significantly increase imports of US agricultural products such as cotton, wheat, corn and soybean, which will offer benefits to US farmers.
Bangladesh has the lowest tariff on most US exports in the South Asian region.
Chief Adviser Prof Yunus indicated further tariff cuts on US products are being fashioned, including top US export items such as gas turbines, semiconductors and medical equipment.
Bangladesh will build dedicated duty free bonded warehouses for cotton to improve US market.
“We are eliminating certain testing requirements, rationalizing packaging, labeling and certification re-quirements and undertaking trade facilitation measures such as simplifying customs procedures and standards,” the Chief Adviser added.
“Bangladesh will take all necessary actions to fully support your trade agenda”, Prof Yunus assured Pres-ident Trump.
A separate letter detailing the actions of Bangladesh will be sent by the Commerce Advisor to the US Trade Representative soon, the statement read.
