Bangladesh-EU Trade and Economic Partnership

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About the project

Over the past several decades, the European Union (EU) has emerged as an indispensable trade and development partner for Bangladesh. With almost half of the country’s merchandise exports is destined to the EU, it is by far the largest export destination. Taking advantage of its Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative—designed for providing preferential duty-free and quota-free market access of goods originated from the least developed countries (LDCs)—Bangladesh’s combined exports to the EU and UK expanded rapidly from US$ 2.5 billion in 2000-01 to $25 billion in 2020-21. In value terms, more than 80 per cent of all trade preferences for Bangladesh is obtained from European markets. The country has been the single largest beneficiary of EU trade preferential schemes.

Along with trade, the EU has been one of the most important development partners. Since 2001, the EU has been providing development assistance to Bangladesh. While disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction, and building resilience have been key priority areas of funding, the EU has also extended support for Rohingya response and pandemic containment efforts.

The nature of trade relationship with the EU, or, more precisely, Bangladesh’s dependence on EU trade preference, is now, however, set to come to terms with other major developments that will require a profound transformation of the current trade and cooperation regime. Against this backdrop, this project will provide an evidence-based policy consultation exercise to prepare for a transformed and revitalized trade and economic partnership with the EU.

This project is being undertaken with support from The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES).Project duration: March 2022-November 2022.

Project activities

Capacity building of journalists

On 14 May 2022, Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Bangladesh organised a capacity building session with seven journalists from several leading newspapers of the country. RAPID Chairman Dr. Mohammad Abdur Razzaque facilitated the session styled “Towards a Transformed and Revitalized Trade and Economic Partnership with the EU".

Read the newspaper article here.

Infographics