Bangladesh attains a good going towards striking free-trade agreements (FTAs) with some countries having significant bilateral trade, as the nation braces for post-graduation loss of market-access preferences, officials said.
Among the countries having close trade ties with Bangladesh and approached for free-trade deals are Asian neighbours like Japan, India, and China.
The work is advancing as the country is poised to lose tariff facilities in many wealthier countries when Bangladesh sees off the world's poor-nation club in 2026.
Under the initiative on stream Bangladesh is about to open negotiations with India for signing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
On completion of a joint study on the pros and cons of signing CEPA, the prime ministers of Bangladesh and India last September had asked the trade officials of both countries to start negotiations within 2022.
Though the formal negotiation has yet to get going, as India is further scrutinising the joint-study report, Bangladesh side meantime formed two committees-a negotiation committee headed by commerce ministry's additional secretary Noor Mahbubul Haque and an advisory committee with ministry's senior secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh at the head.
Bangladesh and India have over $14 billion worth of two-way trade--by official count-- and every year the turnover is growing.
Also, a joint feasibility study on signing FTA between Bangladesh and China is now underway. Officials said Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) recently sent an updated copy of the Bangladesh portion of joint-study report to the ministry of commerce (MoC).
The (MoC) now awaits Chin's response to hold the second meeting of the working group in Dhaka soon to discuss the study report further, sources said.
China with its world's second-largest economy remains a top import source for Bangladesh with two-way trade having reached over $20 billion.
With Japan, a joint feasibility study on FTA is in progress and the two sides met in Dhaka this past week for a second meeting of the study group.
The study is set to complete shortly and Bangladesh expects to strike the deal by 2025, before graduating from the status of least-developed country (LDC).
The bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Japan is now over $3.0 billion, data show.
Bangladesh signed a memorandum of cooperation with Singapore aiming to sign free- trade deal. The two sides sat in Dhaka for a second round of talks under the joint working group early this month.
Officials said Bangladesh and Indonesia are working for signing preferential trade agreement (PTA), and in this regard, negotiation is in progress. The trade-negotiating committee of the two countries sat for fourth meeting mid-May this year to materialise the initiative.
A research group has been formed to conduct a feasibility study for signing Bangladesh- South Korea Economic Partnership Agreement, sources said. The research group held the first meeting recently. The ministry of commerce has asked the group to complete the feasibility study soon and report to the ministry "as early as possible".
Also, the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission recently conducted a feasibility study on FTA with Hong Kong, sources said, and in June, a validation workshop on the study report was held.
Sources said the ministry of commerce recently sent demo-officio letter to the member- countries of 'Mercosur', which is an economic and political bloc consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, expressing interest in signing FTA with the bloc and its members.
The BTTC has identified the potential African countries with which Bangladesh can sign FTAs. A validation workshop was held on the BTTC report in June this year.
Bangladesh is also in talks with Canada on FTA, officials said. Canadian Assistant Deputy Minister Paul Thoppil, in charge of the Asia-Pacific Bureau of Global Affairs Canada, last year at a meeting with Bangladesh ambassador to Canada Dr Khalilur Rahman discussed matters of signing FTA or CEPA.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi last month told parliament that the government had completed feasibility studies to sign free-trade and preferential-trade agreements with 23 countries.
He said primarily steps were taken to initiate negotiations for signing FTAs with 10 countries and three regional alliances on a priority basis.
Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya earlier told the FE that, during FTA studies, some issues have to be kept into consideration so that Bangladesh can benefit from the deals.
He felt that Bangladesh needs to check whether it will get preferential tariff reduction and products having export potential can be included in the FTA concession list.
"The amount of revenue loss from FTA need to calculate and removing non-tariff barriers has to be addressed," he added.
syful-islam@outlook.com