The country鈥檚 businesses urge the government to enter into direct negotiations with the United States regarding the newly imposed 37 per cent reciprocal tariff on exporting items from Bangladesh.
They also said that since the tariff has been imposed on all the major exporters worldwide, Bangladesh has to monitor how its competitors react to the matter.
They spoke at a press conference organised by the International Chamber of Commerce in the capital on Monday.
Mahbubur Rahman, president of the ICC, said that they are concerned at the potential impact of the severe tariffs.
He appreciated the government鈥檚 immediate effort to respond to the issues, including emergency consultation, tariff policy review, increasing imports from the US, revising import policies, and forming a task force.
In his speech, Fazlul Hoque, former president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that the processing time is three to four months from when orders are placed to when they are shipped.
鈥楥urrently, we assume that such processing of worth $2 billion is underway, which will face some difficulties in the coming months as we don鈥檛 know who will pay additional $350-$400 million due to imposition of tariff,鈥� he added.
Abdul Hi, former president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, said that the US import basket is comparatively small, so it will be tough to make up the trade gap by increasing exports.
