Bangladesh has planned to purchase 2.20 lakh tonnes of wheat from the United States at Tk聽817.57 crore with per kilogram costing Tk聽37.17 to appease Washington in its attempt to avert a high US tariff on Bangladeshi goods, said officials.
A proposal was on Monday sent to the advisory council committee on government purchase by the food ministry, seeking approval for buying the wheat at the price set through the government-to-government negotiation between Dhaka and Washington early this month.
A food ministry committee has already evaluated that the proposed price is about $0.13 or Tk聽4 higher for each tonne than the current market rates.
On July 8, US president Donald Trump imposed 35 per cent tariff on Bangladeshi export products, effective from August 1, on top of sectoral tariffs of up to 15 per cent.
Dhaka, which is expecting to start the third round of negotiations with Washington soon, wants the settlement of tariff at a tolerable level to safeguard its overall exports to the US market.
The previous two rounds of talks failed to resolve key issues, including the tariff rate.
The country鈥檚 overall exports to the US were $8.4 billion in 2024, with the readymade garments accounting for $7.34 billion. In the year, the country imported US goods worth $2.2 billion.
The food ministry proposal came a day after the Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding with the US to import 7 lakh tonnes of wheat annually for the next five years amid the threat of facing 35 per cent US tariff on its exports from the next month.
The US is pressing Bangladesh to reduce the trade gap and Washington wants Dhaka import more US products to get a favourable tariff deal.
Officials said that procurement of wheat from the US by the government was a step by Dhaka to address problems relating the trade gap with Washington.
Bangladesh imports wheat mainly from Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, but shipments from Ukraine have decreased since the war with Russia began in 2022.
Bangladesh Bank data showed that the country imported wheat worth about $635.8 million in FY24.
The country鈥檚 annual demand for wheat is around 70 lakh tonnes with private sector importers such as City Group, Meghna Group, Bashundhara Group, Nabil Group, Sheikh Brothers and Sainik Group accounting for around 95 per cent.
For the current financial year of 2025-26, the government has planned to buy 6.1 lakh tonnes of wheat.
