Even as Bangladesh is inching close towards achieving the status of developing nation, which would shorn the country of the trade benefits that it currently enjoys as a least developed country (LDC), the Government recently conducted a feasibility study related to signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Thailand.
As per media reports, the study was conducted by the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission even as the Additional Secretary (FTA wing) to the Commerce Ministry, Mahbubul Haque, while speaking to the media, maintained, “…signing an FTA is still at a preliminary stage,” but added that meetings were held with the stakeholders to know their opinion in this regard.
It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh currently enjoys duty benefit on export of some goods to Thailand under the LDC category even as in fiscal 2019-20, Bangladesh exported goods worth US $ 35.45 million to Thailand — major exports in fiscal 2019-20 included garments apart from optical, precision and surgical instruments; oil seeds, leather goods, etc. — while it imported goods worth US $ 801.57 million, as per data from the central bank (Bangladesh Bank) and the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
The Additional Secretary (FTA wing) to the Commerce Ministry, reportedly, added the Commerce Ministry has been negotiating with many other countries like Japan, Thailand India, Indonesia and some other East Asian nations to sign FTAs, PTAs or comprehensive economic partnership agreements (CEPAs) keeping in mind the LDC graduation.