Bangladesh can increase duty-free exports to UK

The United Kingdom’s visiting trade envoy, Baroness Rosie Winterton of Doncaster, has called on Bangladesh to increase exports to her country utilising the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which offers duty-free access.

During a meeting with Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury at the Secretariat yesterday, she pointed to scope for increasing exports beyond ready-made garments, including processed foods, seafood, light engineering and leather goods.

She also encouraged Bangladesh to make use of approximately £2 billion in export credit facilities available under UK Export Finance for increased infrastructure and other investments, according to a commerce ministry press statement.

During the meeting, both sides agreed to reactivate the Bangladesh–UK Trade and Investment Dialogue, the statement adds.

The DCTS, which replaced the UK’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences, came into force on 19 June 2023. Under the scheme, the UK cuts tariffs, removes conditions and simplifies trading rules for 65 developing countries.

The scheme heavily benefits UK businesses and consumers by reducing the import cost of thousands of products from around the world. Importers enjoy zero percent import tariff on 99.8 percent of products from 47 eligible least developed countries (LDCs), including Bangladesh, under the scheme’s Comprehensive Preferences tier.

The UK has confirmed it will maintain duty-free access for Bangladeshi goods under DCTS even after Bangladesh graduates from LDC status.

During the meeting with the UK envoy, Minister Chowdhury said the government has been working to improve the investment climate, cut logistics costs and ease doing business.

He said Bangladesh is pursuing free trade agreements and economic partnership agreements with several countries and intends to deepen trade ties with the UK.

The UK is Bangladesh’s third-largest export destination after the United States and Germany.

In the last fiscal year 2024-25, Bangladesh exported $4.62 billion worth of goods to the European country, accounting for 9.57 percent of total exports, according to data from the Bangladesh High Commission in London.

The major exportable items include ready-made garments, frozen food, IT engineering, leather and jute goods, and bicycles, with knitwear and woven garments accounting for 90 percent of total exports.