Alison Blake’s move to remove fear of uncertainty is a timely move to minimize all concerns from Bangladesh side about any risk to duty-free market access. Her comment that Britain is committed to ensure a smooth transition for Brexit to keep at the minimum the disruption in bilateral trade and other businesses also shows how important they value their trade relation with Bangladesh. We must say her specific reassurance has come as a big relief to Bangladesh business and we welcome her statement in this respect. Needless to say Bangladesh is also enjoying duty-free market access to all its exports, except firearms to other EU member states. So we must also take care of the fact that business to all member states are not going to face setback anyway.
Britain’s duty-free market access will also continue to all trading partners, as it wants to remain open to global trade even after Brexit, the High Commissioner said. But Bangladesh should prepare at the same time to sign new duty-free trade deal with Britain as soon as it will come out of EU in short time.
For Bangladesh, the UK is a very important trading partner. It is the second largest investor and third largest market for Bangladesh’s exports taking over 10 percent RMG products. Over 200 British companies are doing business. Their total investment last year stood at $ 322 million; which is 13 percent of total foreign direct investment. Even during political turmoil our trade with the UK grew double digit showing the firm business relation from both sides.
We believe her reassurance that business will not suffer through Brexit transition will definitely remove the uncertainty in the country’s manufacturing sector in planning production and expansion of export industries. It is also reassuring to other segments of our society having multiple relations with British establishments; which dates back to our centuries old relations.
However it is too early to be sure whether the United Kingdom’s leaving the European Union will not affect our economy adversely.
