Bangladesh must urgently reform tariff regime or risk falling behind peers: Report

New Delhi, Jan 27 (IANS) Bangladesh could fall behind peer nations and competing economies without radical reforms in tariffs and trade facilitation within five years, an economist warned, according to a new report.

Bangladesh-based media house 'The Daily Star' cited chairman of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh Zaidi Sattar calling for urgent reforms as the country has not undertaken significant trade policy reforms for around 16 years.

Zattar warned at an event marking International Customs Day 2026 at the National Board of Revenue headquarters in Agargaon that the backlog of reform work has now piled up which is weakening the country’s competitiveness in the global value chain, the report said.

"Compared to international standards, Bangladesh's tariff regime is very high and extremely complex which weakens the country’s competitiveness in global value," said Sattar, adding that cumbersome customs procedures raise compliance costs calling for radical liberalisation of the trade policy.

“If radical changes are not implemented within the next five years—particularly in tariff rationalisation, tariff modernisation, and trade facilitation—the country’s economy will fall behind many other competitive economies,” Sattar said according to the report.

Zattar was hopeful that Bangladesh would move towards a modern customs administration prioritising trade facilitation over revenue collection, as trade taxes currently account for around 2.5 per cent of GDP.

The economist urged that the trade taxes should drop to a maximum of1 per cent by 2030.

Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman also noted non-tariff barriers continuing to impede trade and he called on the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to prioritise simplification of the trade regime.

According to him, European Commission officials who recently visited the country raised a long list of concerns, many of which were linked to customs procedures.

“People are not really asking us to remove high tariffs. They are raising concerns over legitimate technical barriers to trade,” Mahbubur Rahman said.

Bangladesh’s upcoming graduation out of UN's Least Developed Country (LDC) category has made trade facilitation more urgent, as the country seeks to retain preferential market access through agreements with key partners, Rahman added.