STAR REPORT

Jamaat-e-Islami does not oppose the reciprocal trade agreement with the US at this moment, arguing that certain aspects of the deal are important for Bangladesh and thus should continue.

“We are not strongly opposing them at this moment, as many trade-related issues involving Bangladesh are linked to these agreements,” Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher told reporters yesterday.

He also told journalists that Jamaat requested the US lower the tariff from 19 percent during a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs S Paul Kapur at the residence of US Ambassador Brent Christensen in the capital.

BNP, however, did not make any comment on the trade deal when asked about Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman’s statement that the major political parties had given consent to the deal before it was signed on February 9.

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