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the European Union and Canada will face tariffs between 12 and 18 percent -- a factor that will undermine competitiveness, Azad added.

Syed Nasim Manzur, president of the Leathergoods and Footwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association of Bangladesh, said, “Graduation must be a controlled landing, not a crash landing. The process is well defined. I think technical eligibility does not mean readiness.”

He said while the private sector is not prepared, bureaucrats are making “fake claims”. “LDC graduation now would be suicidal,” he warned.

Manzur recounted how buyers in the US, Italy, Japan and Hong Kong warned him during recent visits. “All the buyers say, ‘Sir, you must be competitive. No space of emotion or relationship here.’ The biggest buyers in H&M, Inditex say, ‘If you lose preference, we will reduce business.’”

He urged Dhaka to immediately invite the UN Committee for Development Policy (CDP) to assess readiness, target the November 25 CDP review, and intensify lobbying in Brussels, Strasbourg and friendly capitals. Bangladesh should also coordinate with Nepal and Lao PDR, two other graduating countries, to push for deferral.

Manzur also recommended benchmarking finance costs with Vietnam and India, easing central bank export rules, expanding Export Development Fund facilities, and modernising payment regulations to cut the cost of doing business.

Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez, president of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries, said business enterprises, particularly SMEs, have been battered since 2020 by one crisis after another: pandemic, Ukraine war, and energy shortages. Yet they received little coordinated support.

He also said businesspeople understand that graduation is inevitable. “But the core issue is whether we are prepared to withstand the impact. What we are requesting is not to avoid graduation, but to delay its implementation by three to five years so that our industries have time to adjust,” he said.

Parvez said the loss of duty-free access to key markets such as the EU, UK, and Canada will hit Bangladesh’s exporters hard.

“We are particularly concerned about the influx of foreign merchandise in the domestic market, which will severely undercut local manufacturing,” he said.

Kamran T Rahman, president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also warned that graduation would strip Bangladesh of preferential trade and concessional financing.

“It is imperative that the government works closely with the private sector to create a comprehensive roadmap that addresses these challenges head-on,” he said.

Mashrur Arefin, managing director of City Bank, highlighted the looming financial squeeze: graduation will end concessional lending from multilateral agencies. “Borrowing terms from multilateral agencies such as JICA and the World Bank will become less favourable, resulting in higher interest rates,” he said.

Fazlul Hoque, managing director of Plummy Fashions, lamented that even as incentives on export receipts were cut, private sector voices remained marginal in policymaking. He urged faster port operations and productivity upgrades at factories.

Economist Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said if any country meets the graduation criteria for six years in the triennial review, as Bangladesh has done, then it can still approach the UN CDP for a deferral.

CDP will review Bangladesh’s case on November 25. “Remember, the formulation of the Smooth Transition Strategy (STS) is part of the CDP mechanism. When a country graduates, they must prepare the STS, and that review will now take place,” Mustafizur said.

He stressed that even if Bangladesh wants to pursue a deferral of graduation, it should also take preparations for the graduation.

“I agree we must prepare. But why not also try for a deferral? On the technical side, this STS we have prepared can be used to argue, for example, about our single-window export readiness …”

He pointed to other options like Vietnam’s FTAs with the EU, which allowed duty-free exports even after losing LDC preferences.

Mohammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of Research and Policy Integration for Development, urged launching immediate diplomatic efforts through the G-77, the EU, India and the US.

However, he admitted that since Bangladesh’s graduation resolution has already gone to the UN General Assembly, deferment will be difficult. He stressed coordination with Nepal and Lao PDR and called for lobbying to ease EU GSP Plus conditions.

He also urged continuing subsidies, improving the Savar tannery CETP to attract leather orders shifting from China, and addressing infrastructure bottlenecks that raise costs.

Zahid Hussain, former lead economist at World Bank’s Dhaka office, suggested thinking about alternatives if Bangladesh cannot seek a deferral.

For instance, Bangladesh can demand a waiver on some pharmaceutical products, he said. Bangladesh can also lobby with the EU for signing an FTA and ease the conditions for GSP Plus facilities.

But whatever the outcome is, Bangladesh needs structural reforms and improved efficiency, he said.

Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, said the government could have paid more attention to the preparation, noting that it has only 14 months left to act decisively.

“The well deserving private sector was also not given proper attention in the steps of preparation,” he added.