The United States Trade Representative, the chief trade negotiation body for the American government, invited Bangladesh to resume the third and final round of tariff negotiations on July 29, said commerce secretary Mahbubur Rahman.
Earlier, Bangladesh sent the country鈥檚 position paper to the USTR on July 22 and proposed July 26 as the date for resuming the final round of negotiations at the USTR office in Washington DC.
However, the USTR finally set July 29 as the date for resuming the talks, where commerce adviser Sk Bashir Uddin will lead the Bangladesh team, the commerce secretary told BSS over the phone.
If the meeting is held in person, the Bangladesh team will leave for the USA on July 27. However, there is also a possibility that the meeting will be held virtually, the secretary said.
This time, some exporters from the private sector may join the Bangladesh team, but they will not take part in the negotiation meetings, which will be held in a government-to-government format, he added.
The secretary expressed hope that the Trump administration would lower the tariff rate for Bangladesh at the end of the negotiations, as rates had already been lowered for some countries.
Earlier, the US government has reduced tariffs to 15 per cent for Japan, 19 per cent for Indonesia, 20 per cent for Vietnam, and 19 per cent for the Philippines.
Moreover, Bangladesh has so far negotiated well with the USTR, and it is expected that the tariff rate for Bangladesh will also be significantly lower than the existing 35 per cent.
Bangladesh has already offered zero-duty import of US commodities such as cotton, wheat, liquefied natural gas, aircraft, and other agricultural products.
To increase imports from the USA, Bangladesh signed a deal with American wheat suppliers on July 20 to import 0.7 million tonnes of the cereal grain.
