Staff Correspondent:

Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam on Thursday said their ongoing work with the US government is expected to help address the tariff issue.

The United States has announced a 37-percent tariff on imports from Bangladesh as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping new “Reciprocal Tariffs” policy.

“Bangladesh is reviewing its tariffs on products imported from the United States,” said the Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary.

He said the National Board of Revenue is identifying options to rationalise tariffs expeditiously, which is necessary to address the matter.

“The United States is a close friend of Bangladesh and our largest export destination,” Alam said before leaving Dhaka for Bangkok where Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus is leading the Bangladesh delegation to attend the BIMSTEC Summit.

The Press Secretary said they have been working with the US since the Trump Administration took over to enhance trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

Bangladesh got slapped with a whopping 37%, Trump team’s calculation being that the country imposes 74% tariffs on imports from the US, that they then halved for many countries to arrive at ‘reciprocal’, because “we’re such nice people.”

Currently, most Bangladeshi goods are subjected to a 15% tariff on entry into the US market.

The new rate is thus well over double the present rate.

The only consolation for Bangladesh might be that a number of its competitors fared worse.

Vietnam got slapped with 46%, Cambodia 49%, Sri Lanka 44%. India and Pakistan fared slightly better though, at 26% and 29% respectively.