The first day of the third and final round of the tariff talks with the United States on a 35 per cent reciprocal tariff ended with positive responses, said commerce secretary Mahbubur Rahman on Wednesday morning.
Talking to 抖阴精品 at about 8:00am in Bangladesh Time from Washington, he said that they had a fruitful discussion with the US counterpart on July 29.
鈥楢s they invited us here in persons and we got positive responses from them, we are hopeful that the tariffs imposed on Bangladesh would be reduced,鈥� he added.
He also said that the United States Trade Representatives usually don鈥檛 hint at anything before everything becomes official, but their responses indicated that the tariffs would be reduced.
鈥榃e hope our tariff would be reduced significantly, but it is not possible to say exactly by how much at this moment,鈥� he added, saying that they have meetings scheduled for the second day and they are hopeful for a favourable result.
The first day of the third round of tariff negotiations began at about 12:30pm Washington time (10:30pm Dhaka time on Tuesday) and concluded at 5:30 pm Washington Time (3:30am Dhaka time on Wednesday).
The second day of tariff talks is expected to begin at 9:00am Washington time, according to a social media post by Golam Mortoza, press minister at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington.
Led by commerce adviser SK Bashir Uddin, national security adviser Khalilur Rahman, commerce secretary Mahbubur Rahman, and additional secretary Nazneen Kawshar Chowdhury were also present at the meeting.
Some officials also connected virtually.
On the US side, the talks were led by assistant trade representative Brendan Lynch, along with officials responsible for trade and tariffs.
The Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington, DC, coordinated the entire negotiation process.
A Bangladeshi delegation led by commerce adviser SK Bashir Uddin left Dhaka for Washington on Monday evening to participate in the third and final round of negotiations on Trump's proposed 35 per cent reciprocal tariffs.
Some businessmen also travelled to Washington, though they wouldn鈥檛 attend the meeting. They would seek B2B negotiations with US businesses.
Earlier, on July 8, the Trump administration imposed a 35 per cent tariff on Bangladeshi exports, set to take effect from August 1.
The second round of discussions ended on July 11, but failed to produce a consensus from either side regarding the tariff policy.
Currently, the Bangladeshi exporters enjoy a 15 per cent to 16 per cent tariff when exporting to the North American country.
Recently, the US president Donald Trump revised the tariff on Indonesia and Vietnam to 19 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.
