It has been learned Bangladesh’s commerce ministry negotiated with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to reduce the reciprocal tariffs. The delegation that Dhaka sent to Washington for the first phase of the talks could not become much successful.

Commerce Adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin took the lead in July ahead of the second round of the talks. While business leaders had been urging the government to include businesses and economists in the negotiation since the beginning, the government brought the businesses in the process at the very last time.

Following the call from the government, traders started communicating to the agro products exporters in the US from the last week of July. The business delegation, currently in the US, held several rounds of talks with the US exporters on Wednesday and Thursday, reaching an understanding on the import of soybean seeds and cotton worth USD 260 million, as well as making commitments to import huge amounts of various products.

It has been learned after speaking to businesspeople that an immediate understanding was reached to import around 400,000 tonnes of soybean seeds from the US following several rounds of talks. MGI chairman Mostafa Kamal reached an agreement to import 300,000 tonnes of soybean seeds worth USD 130 million. Amirul Haque, managing director of Delta Agro Food Industries, reached a similar understanding for soybean seed imports worth approximately USD 100 million. Soybean seeds are the raw material used for producing soybean oil and animal feed.