The government would soon plan trade re-negotiations with the United Kingdom (UK) to tackle the challenges that the country would face following the Brexit referendum, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said on Saturday, reports BSS.

The UK is leaving the European Union (EU) as Britons voted to exit the EU on Friday, sending a global warning of a severe impact on the countries' trade and economy particularly that are closely associated with the Euro bloc.

Like many other countries, economists and analysts here in Dhaka also expressed apprehension about probable negative impacts of UK's exit from the EU. Among those are losing duty benefits on Bangladesh's export to UK, decline in remittance inflow and volatility in the foreign exchange market.

Bangladesh is now enjoying a 12.5 per cent duty benefit on its exports to EU countries including the UK. But, the duty benefit would be discontinued for UK once the country departs from the bloc. 

Expressing similar worry, the commerce minister said like many other countries Bangladesh would also go through a major turbulence in the coming days until a fruitful renegotiation is done with the UK authorities for continuing duty benefit on its exports to that country. 

Terming the outcome of Brexit referendum unexpected, Tofail said the government would identify the areas where it could start renegotiation for better trade benefits.

"We, however, would have enough time for the renegotiation," the minister said adding that the country could hopefully avert any big negative impact of Brexit.

According to experts, the UK would require at least two years to sort out all the formalities for making the exit from the 28-country EU bloc.

UK is the third largest export destination for Bangladesh, with the country netting more than US$3.0 billion from shipping various goods including readymade garments to that country. 

According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh's major exports to EU include apparels, vegetables, fruits and agro-products.

Besides export income, a major portion of remittance also comes from a large number of non-resident Bangladeshis who have been living in the UK and sending home money for years. [Read More]

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Source: The Financial Express