TPP of no particular interest to Bangladesh

Bangladesh is neither in a position to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) bloc nor does it need to do so, the Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC) has said.

The BTC which is the statutory organisation of the government working for protection of interests of local industries came to the conclusion after studying different aspects of the TPP deal, a Bangladeshi newspaper has reported.

The BTC’s report has been submitted to the commerce ministry.

It also said the country's ready-made garment (RMG) export will face a competition from TPP member Vietnam.

TPP member-countries have a vast scope to derive their mutual economic benefits through duty relief.

Senior secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Hedayetullah Al Mamoon said Bangladesh's exports get tariff-free access to markets in most of the TPP member-countries except the US under the least developed country (LDC) status.

So, Bangladesh would not gain any significant benefits by joining the TPP bloc.

Among the TPP members, countries like Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore and New Zealand grant Bangladeshi products tariff-free market access.

The BTC report warned that Bangladesh’s income from duty on imports from those markets will fall if Dhaka joins the bloc, because the country will have to reciprocate to some extent by reducing import tariffs for the partner countries.

Consequently, Bangladesh will face a fall in revenue earnings from import duty as TPP member countries like Singapore and Japan are two major sources of its imports.