Finance Adviser optimistic about resolving Trump's additional tariffs

Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed said that the Chief Adviser and Commerce Adviser wrote to the Trump administration on Monday regarding the additional 37 percent tariff imposed by the United States on Bangladeshi products. I hope the issue will be resolved.

He said this in response to questions from reporters after the meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Government Procurement held at the Secretariat today, Tuesday, chaired by the Finance Adviser.

He also said, on the one hand, if they do it, we will adjust the issue, not that. We will raise our issue. I believe this issue will be resolved. It will be a positive thing, if it is positive, they will also benefit, we will also benefit.

The Finance Adviser also said, today we have been approved to import lentils, rice, LNG and oil. The purchase orders that have been placed today are lower in price than before. This is because we want to compete a little. Earlier, there were only a few suppliers, but now the competition has increased due to opening up. As a result, we are getting it at a lower price. We are saving a lot.

Have you received any response to the letter sent to the US at this time regarding the imposition of tariffs? In response to a question from journalists, Commerce Advisor Sheikh Bashiruddin said, no, we have not received any response yet. He said, the letter sent to the US administration to add 100 more products to the duty-free list to reduce the trade deficit will have a positive impact. Our main issue is to reduce the trade deficit. We are working on that.

Overall, the imposition of tariffs has created fear in the minds of people, what will be our mechanism to deal with this? In response to such a question, Sheikh Bashiruddin said, our main issue is to reduce the trade deficit. We are working on that. We are doing various analyses. With what products can we reduce the trade deficit? In fact, this is a very changing issue.

In response to a question from reporters about whether there will be any positive impact on 100 products being made zero tariff, the commerce adviser said, of course, we are working hard to see if we can. We are trying to determine how our trade deficit can be reduced.