The third round of the tariff talks between Bangladesh and the United States entered the third and final day on Thursday, with Dhaka trying to strike a deal in a last-ditch attempt to reduce ‘reciprocal’ tariff imposed by the Trump administration.
Bangladeshi officials on Thursday said that after the end of the negotiations, the final tariff rate could be announced soon by US president Donald Trump.
On July 8, Trump imposed 35 per cent tariff on Bangladeshi exports, with effect from August 1, on top of sectoral tariffs of up to 15-16 per cent.
According to messages received from Washington on Thursday, the final day’s tariff talks would start between a Bangladesh delegation with the Office of United States Trade Representative, responsible for developing and promoting US foreign trade policies, at 1:00pm (Washington time) and would continue till 3:00pm on Thursday (Washington time).
Earlier, the second-day talks were held on July 30 (Washington time) with consensus on major issues, Bangladesh officials said.
As most of the issues have been resolved, the officials are hopeful that a positive outcome might come.
The Bangladesh delegation, led by commerce adviser Sk Bashir Uddin, and representatives from the Office of the USTR reached consensus on most of the clauses.
The first day of the discussion on July 29 also concluded with positive responses, said commerce secretary Mahbubur Rahman on July 30.
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 headed by assistant trade representative Brendan Lynch.
The embassy of Bangladesh in Washington coordinated the negotiation process.
The Bangladeshi delegation left Dhaka for Washington on July 28 for the tariff talks.
A number of businesses also travelled to Washington for negotiations with US businesses.
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 to the US goods worth about $8.4 billion, of which $7.34 billion accounted for readymade garments. In the year, the country imported US goods worth $2.2 billion.
Against the backdrop, the US is pressing Bangladesh to lower the trade deficit to get a ‘favourable’ tariff rate.
With a view to reducing the trade deficit, Bangladesh on July 27 planned to purchase 25 Boeing aircraft.
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.
The US president recently revised the tariffs on Indonesia, Vietnam and India to 19 per cent, 20 per cent, and 25 per cent respectively.
Earlier, on April 3, the US had imposed a steep 37 per cent ‘reciprocal’ tariff on Bangladeshi exports, but on April 9 the US president declared a pause on the tariff for three months.
After the pause was announced, Bangladesh began the first round of tariff talks with the US.
