Speakers at DCCI workshop Make rationalised tariff structure for post-LDC period

Business Desk :
After the LDC graduation Bangladesh will have to face a few challenges that we will not be able to give subsidy, impose supplementary duty or regulatory duty, and pay royalty for patent for medicines, increase value addition of the products under rules of origin. In view of this context, we will have to rationalize our existing tariff structure, told the speakers at a workshop on “Competitive tariff structure: post-LDC graduation context” organized by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) on Wednesday.
President of Dhaka Chamber Rizwan Rahman said that after the LDC graduation, Bangladesh will have to pay 8pc to 16pc duty to the countries where we export. Moreover, we will not be able to impose any supplementary (SD) and regulatory duty (RD) to safeguard local industries which is going to be a challenge. At present our average tariff structure is about 13.5pc which is higher than Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia. We need to prepare ourselves in terms of enhancing productivity, cost minimization, industry skill development, ease of doing businessand cost of doing business.
Md. Mashiul Alam, Joint Chief, Bangladesh Tariff Commission presented the keynote paper. He said that from now we have to go for regional integration for PTA, FTA and CEPA with potential trading partners to hold the market access.
Shis Haider Chowdhury, Member, Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission said that including government and private sector should work jointly to make our tariff structure competitive.