Bangladesh locked in ‘US shopping spree’ despite court’s ruling against tariffs

New Delhi: Bangladesh has committed billions of dollars to buy US liquefied natural gas, aircraft and grain under a trade pact intended to avert American tariffs, but the country still remains locked in these deals even after US courts struck down the legal basis for tariff threats, a new report has said.

The report from Bangladesh-based The Daily Star said that a cabinet committee in Bangladesh on August 12 cleared a decade‑long LNG deal with Gunvor USA LLC that secures 117 cargoes through 2038, roughly 7.5 million tonnes.

The deal forms part of $15 billion of US energy purchases Bangladesh signalled under a bilateral Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) signed in February.

The agreement bypassed any open tender process, binding Bangladesh’s gas bill to the US through a non-conventional state-to-state formula negotiated with a private trading firm.

United States courts have discarded the legal basis for Washington’s global tariff threats, including against Bangladesh twice since February, but it has not slowed down Dhaka’s “extraordinary US shopping spree,” the publication said.

“This buying spree persists against the backdrop of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART), a bilateral pact with Washington whose underlying rationale has evaporated in US courts. Bangladesh signed the treaty on February 9, just three days before a general election, under Muhammad Yunus’s interim government,” it added.

The ART has not formally entered into force because neither side completed domestic notification procedures, yet Dhaka has proceeded with multi‑billion‑dollar commercial commitments as if the pact was legally binding.

The report also highlighted the asymmetric nature of the treaty as Bangladesh is required to eliminate duties on nearly all US goods immediately or within five to 10 years.

However, the US has not committed any guaranteed purchase of Bangladeshi products under the lopsided agreement.

Mohammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) said that a 60-day exit clause and the double nullification of reciprocal tariffs by US courts do not help Bangladesh secure an exit.

Razzaque said that the Bangladesh government is compelled to maintain its elevated import schedule from the US as a symbolic gesture to demonstrate political alignment and signal “that it wants the US”.

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