The upcoming national budget is expected to bring sweeping changes to Bangladesh’s import tariff regime, with duties on nearly 500 products—around 100 from the United States—set for reductions, officials confirmed.

The move aims to facilitate Bangladesh’s graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status next year and ease trade tensions tied to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

Supplementary and regulatory duties will be cut by 20–40% on most of the 500 items, while customs duty (CD) will be reduced on 135 products. These include fish, animal-based items, and certain intermediate raw materials.

“We are going to waive CD on 100 items imported from the USA to align the tariff rate with reciprocity, as desired by the Trump administration,” said a revenue official.

Conversely, the government plans to raise import duties—up to threefold—on raw materials across 14 manufacturing sectors to gradually phase out protective tariffs. Products facing hikes include beverage concentrates, energy-saving bulbs, cigarette paper, and raw materials for electric fans and food processing.

Tariff values and minimum values—fixed benchmarks used to prevent under-invoicing—will be scrapped on around 40 items to align with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. The ‘minimum value’ system, long criticised for distorting trade parity, will be gradually withdrawn.

Duties on 59 raw materials for medicines, including cancer treatments, may be eliminated entirely.

Bangladesh’s average import tariff is 28%—more than double the LDC average—so the overhaul is seen as crucial to meeting IMF and WTO conditions and preparing for a more competitive global trading environment.