REFAYET ULLAH MIRDHA

The government will shortly write to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), urging it to reduce what it describes as an irrational imposition of 37 percent reciprocal tariffs on Bangladeshi exports, a top official said yesterday.

The decision was taken at an urgent inter-ministerial meeting at the Secretariat within hours of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement, according to Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman.

Speaking to The Daily Star over the phone, he presented Bangladesh’s rebuttal to the new US tariff measures.

“Our comprehensive analysis shows that American goods entering Bangladesh face an average tax incidence of merely 2.37 percent,” the commerce secretary said.

“This minimal rate reflects our duty-free or near-zero tariff treatment to key US commodities including cotton, iron ore, soybean seeds and scrap metal. So, the imposition of such disproportionate reciprocal duties is not justified,” Rahman said.

He added that the ministry has scheduled a high-priority meeting with Tracey Ann Jacobson, the chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Dhaka, on Sunday.

After the import tariff hike by the US on Wednesday, Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to the chief adviser, said that the authorities were evaluating options to adjust tariffs.

NBR Chairman Abdur Rahman Khan said revenue officials were examining which US products face duties, their respective rates, and their trade value.

Asked about Trump’s claim that Bangladesh imposes a 74 percent tariff on American goods, the NBR chairman said they were verifying this figure.

“They may have cited only the highest-duty items. We are cross-checking the data,” he added. “The US might have referenced either peak or average rates. We are now analysing the actual numbers.”

Similarly, the commerce secretary identified several issues in the Trump administration’s tariff methodology.

“Firstly, their calculations completely disregard Bangladesh’s substantial imports of American services,” he said.

“Secondly, they ignore the millions we pay annually in licensing fees to US technology firms and insurance providers. They have also excluded the digital service payments flowing to American platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Microsoft.”