Bangladesh on FTA hunt as its graduation nears

Bangladesh now gears up drives for striking free-trade deals, with negotiations underway with a couple of countries, as the country prepares for post-graduation trade sans tariff concessions. The country is likely to start negotiations with two more countries this month and next.

Commerce ministry officials-who, incidentally, are now engrossed in efforts to get mitigated US tariff upheaval-say they want to begin formal negotiations on free-trade deal with as many bilaterally important countries before graduation from the world's poor-country club.

Bangladesh is posed to lose tariff facilities in many wealthier countries when it leaves least-developed country (LDC) group in late 2026.

They say the formal negotiations on Bangladesh-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) are expected to conclude by the first week of September. They also expect to seal Bangladesh's first bilateral free-trade-area deal by this coming December.

According to the officials, the second round of negotiations on FTA deal between Bangladesh and Singapore will take place this month. The first round of negotiations was held in Dhaka in March. The two sides on several occasions have expressed hope to conclude the deal by December next year.

The formal negotiation on Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is also scheduled to begin this month, said a senior commerce ministry official.

"The UAE cabinet has already given approval to begin CEPA talks," he told the FE.

In August, said the official, Bangladesh will get down to conducting formal FTA negotiations with two important bilateral partners--Malaysia and South Korea.

"We had long been discussing with Malaysia a possible FTA. Now they agreed to begin first round of formal talks next month," he said.

Bangladesh sends thousands of its workers to Malaysia every year while imports a handsome volume of goods from the ASEAN country, especially edible oils in larger volumes.

The formal FTA negotiation with South Korea is also scheduled for next month, according to another commerce ministry official.

He said at the initial stage, Bangladesh was denied access to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free-trade agreement among member-states of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its FTA partners.

The official said India had reportedly influenced Bangladesh not to join RCEP back then when Awami League was in power.

"After the interim government took office, we applied for entry to the RCEP and they accepted it. Now formal negotiation will begin soon," says the official.

syful-islam@outlook.com