Bangladesh will buy two bulk carrier ships from the US at a cost of over Tk 936 crore.
It was first reported in June that the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation would invest its own funds to procure two vessels. That news has now been confirmed, with the US the beneficiary.
Why it matters:
In a bid to secure better tariff terms following Donald Trump's sweeping trade measures, Bangladesh has made several moves to reduce its trade deficit with the US. This would mark the latest in a series of levers, which include:
- Ordering 25 aircraft from Boeing, each priced at hundreds of millions of dollars.
- Signing an agreement to import 700,000 tonnes of US wheat annually over the next five years
- Agreeing to increase LNG imports
- Offering zero-duty on some products
- Allocating 600 acres for a cotton warehouse, with local importers targeting US cotton imports worth $1 billion this year
- Private-sector agreements, including Meghna Group's $130 million soybean import deal
The bigger picture:
- The same day that news of the ships being acquired broke, Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin said efforts are underway to reduce the 20% reciprocal tariff imposed by the US to 15%, driving speculation that the two were linked.
- There have long been rumblings of discontent surrounding the tariff deal struck between Bangladesh and the US, the terms of which "cannot be made public", according to Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed.
- The secrecy around the negotiations has rubbed many the wrong way, with an alliance of several leftist parties on Monday demanding all agreements made with other nations, including the US, be made public.
- According to Bangla daily Prothom Alo, which cited unnamed sources, discussions with the US went beyond trade, with geopolitical and strategic considerations also playing a role, primarily to ensure Bangladesh does not tilt too far towards China
The bottom line:
The entire premise of Trump's sweeping 'Liberation Day' tariffs hinged on negotiating better deals with other countries, and the move certainly seems to be working as many countries have bent over backwards in fear of exorbitant tariffs.
In a situation where even those with icy relations, such as China, are being asked to appease the US by quadrupling soybean imports, Bangladesh was not left with much room to negotiate on its own terms.
What sort of deal the country ended up with eventually is what everyone wants to know. But clarity seems to be a long way off.
Would Tulip being a Bangladeshi change things?
British MP and Sheikh Hasina's niece Tulip Siddiq holds Bangladeshi citizenship, despite long-standing contentions she does not, Mohammad Sultan Mahmud, public prosecutor for Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission, revealed.
The prosecutor said the British MP for Hampstead and Highgate has held a Bangladeshi passport and identity card as an adult. She has also been registered to vote in the country. Relevant government bodies also confirmed the existence of such documents.
However, a spokesperson for Siddiq's lawyers denied the documents existed and suggested they were fabrications.
Zoom In:
Tulip is currently being tried in absentia in her motherland on allegations of corruption and continues to plead her innocence in the case.
She has tried to distance herself from her Bangladeshi roots on numerous occasions in recent years, marking a departure from the trend in her youth, when she claimed to be a brand ambassador of sorts for the Awami League.
The Bigger Picture:
Tulip may be feigning ignorance of the corruption that is rampant across Bangladesh, but her overt support for her family, which meticulously manoeuvred that corruption for its own benefit, has never dwindled.
Brutal crackdowns on peaceful protests and various human rights abuses have been ignored by the British MP, who claimed she had no involvement in Bangladeshi politics. At the same time, she benefited from a series of properties paid for by people with links to the Awami League.
The bottom line:
According to UK Parliament guidelines, a British citizen with dual nationality can register to vote and qualify to stand in UK parliamentary, local and police and crime commissioners (PCC) elections.
The fact that Tulip has dual citizenship would not be held against her in any way. However, her continued support of a brutal regime, combined with what may prove to be a series of lies regarding her citizenship, certainly brings her closer to the point of no return when it comes to the British Parliament.
Comments