The third round of tariff talks of Bangladesh with the United States entered the second day on Wednesday, just one day before a steep 35 per cent tariff on Bangladeshi exports to the US market comes into effect.
The Bangladeshi delegation was set to join the second day鈥檚 talks with the Office of United States Trade Representative, responsible for developing and promoting US foreign trade policies, at 9:00am (Washington time) on Wednesday, in the hope of reducing the rate of the 鈥榬eciprocal tariff鈥�, according to a social media post by Golam Mortoza, press minister at the Bangladesh embassy in Washington.
On July 8, US president Donald Trump imposed the 35 per cent tariff on Bangladeshi exports, with effect from August 1, on top of sectoral tariffs of up to 15-16 per cent.
The first day of the third and final round of the tariff talks ended with positive responses, said commerce secretary Mahbubur Rahman on Wednesday morning.
Talking to 抖阴精品 at about 8:00am (Bangladesh time) from Wessington, he聽 said that they had a fruitful discussion with the US on Tuesday.
鈥楢s they invited us here in person and we have got positive responses from them, we are hopeful that the tariff imposed on Bangladesh would be reduced,鈥� he added.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, in a post on Truth Social, Trump slapped India with a 25 per cent 鈥榬eciprocal tariff鈥� along with penalty, mainly for importing military equipment and energy from Russia and China.
Mahbubur also said that the United States Trade Representative usually did not hint at anything before everything became official, but their responses indicated that the tariff on Bangladesh would be reduced.
鈥榃e hope the tariff on us would be reduced significantly, but it is not possible to say exactly by how much at this moment,鈥� he said, adding that they had meetings scheduled for the second day.
The first day of the third round of tariff negotiations began at 12:30pm (Washington time) or 10:30pm (Dhaka time) on Tuesday and ended at 5:30pm (Washington time) on Tuesday or 3:30am on Wednesday (Dhaka time).
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 joined virtually.
On the US side, the talks were led by US assistant trade representative Brendan Lynch.
The embassy of Bangladesh in Washington coordinated the negotiation process.
The Bangladeshi delegation, led by the commerce adviser, left Dhaka for Washington Monday evening.
A number of Bangladeshi businesses also travelled to Washington, though they would not attend the meeting. They would seek business-to-business negotiations with US businesses.
Earlier, the second round of tariff discussions ended on July 11, but failed to produce a consensus from either side regarding the tariff policy.
In 2024, Bangladesh exported goods worth about $8.4 billion to the US, of which $7.34 billion accounted for readymade garments. In the year, the country imported US goods worth $2.2 billion.
The US is pressuring Bangladesh to lower the trade deficit in order to secure a 鈥榝avourable鈥� tariff rate.
Bangladesh plans to purchase 25 Boeing aircraft as part of the trade negotiations with the US.
Earlier, on July 20, Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding with the US to import 7 lakh tonnes of wheat annually for the next five years to reduce the trade deficit with the US.
On July 23, the interim government decided to procure 2.20 lakh tonnes of wheat from the US at $302.75 a tonne.
Recently, the Trump administration has revised down the tariffs on Indonesia and Vietnam to 19 per cent and 20 per cent per cent, respectively. Both the countries are Bangladesh鈥檚 competitors in the global RMG export market.
Earlier, on April 3, the US had imposed a 37 per cent 鈥榬eciprocal鈥� tariff on Bangladeshi exports, but on April 9 the US president declared a pause on the tariff for three months.
After the pause, Bangladesh entered into the first round of tariff talks with the US.
