{"id":7180,"date":"2026-02-01T16:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/?p=7180"},"modified":"2026-02-01T16:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:26:07","slug":"bangladesh-to-sign-tariff-deal-with-u-s-on-feb-9-three-days-before-election-commerce-secretary-to-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/?p=7180","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh to Sign Tariff Deal with U.S. on Feb 9\u2014Three Days Before Election; Commerce Secretary to Lead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The interim government of Bangladesh will sign a tariff agreement with the United States on <strong>February 9<\/strong> in Washington, D.C.\u2014three days ahead of the national polls\u2014officials said Sunday. The delegation will be led by Commerce Secretary <strong>Mahbubur Rahman<\/strong>, not Commerce Adviser <strong>Sheikh Bashiruddin<\/strong> as initially planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rahman told reporters the government has received the Feb 9 slot from Washington and has sent a summary seeking approval to sign. On the current <strong>20% counter-tariff<\/strong> that has applied to Bangladesh since last August\u2019s understanding between the two sides, he said some partners face the same or higher rates and expressed hope the figure \u201cmay come down,\u201d while stressing nothing is final until signing day. Bashiruddin separately confirmed he will return to Dhaka after Tokyo and will not go to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before Washington, the trade team departs <strong>Feb 5<\/strong> for <strong>Tokyo<\/strong> to conclude the <strong>Bangladesh\u2013Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (BJEPA)<\/strong> on <strong>Feb 6<\/strong>. According to the Commerce Ministry\u2019s earlier briefing, BJEPA would grant <strong>7,379 Bangladeshi products<\/strong> duty-free entry to <strong>Japan<\/strong> from day one, while <strong>1,039 Japanese products<\/strong> would receive immediate duty-free access to Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked about the recently signed <strong>India\u2013EU FTA<\/strong>, Rahman said there is \u201cno cause for anxiety,\u201d noting Bangladesh\u2019s standing as the world\u2019s No. 2 apparel exporter and describing India\u2019s comparative strength in textiles\u2014also a source of raw materials for Bangladeshi manufacturers\u2014alongside Bangladesh\u2019s own capacity in readymade garments. (European Union; India)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. tariff accord\u2014formalizing last August\u2019s understanding\u2014aims to reset bilateral trade terms that have weighed on exporters. Final tariff lines and any phased reductions are expected to be disclosed at the signing in Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The interim government of Bangladesh will sign a tariff agreement with the United States on February 9 in Washington, D.C.\u2014three days ahead of the national polls\u2014officials said Sunday. The delegation will be led by Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman, not Commerce Adviser Sheikh Bashiruddin as initially planned. Rahman told reporters the government has received the Feb [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7186,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7180\/revisions\/7186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}