Refayet Ullah Mirdha

Japan is looking to increase imports of garment products from Bangladesh, with Japanese companies seeking local business partners to strengthen sourcing under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed between the two countries.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) will hold an emergency board meeting today to review the persistent decline in garment exports.

The US has proposed fresh tariffs on 60 countries, including Bangladesh, because they have failed to prove they do not import industrial raw materials from places where forced labour is used.

Bangladesh should show clear progress in the reforms it has committed to the UN CDP to secure a short deferral of its LDC graduation, said Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), yesterday.

The government is planning to form a high-level committee to implement and monitor the action plans it has committed to the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (UN CDP), as part of efforts to ensure a smooth graduation from the least developed country (LDC) group.

Bangladesh is expected to play a significant role in a new US initiative aimed at boosting American cotton exports, as the Trump administration links potential tariff benefits for Bangladeshi apparel exports to the use of US cotton and textile inputs.

The European Union is set to begin an internal assessment of Bangladesh’s proposal for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the bloc, nearly a year after the proposal was first placed.

More than 95 percent of factories across garment and textile associations paid April salaries ahead of Eid-ul-Azha as of yesterday evening, according to Industrial Police (IP) data.