DHAKA, Sept 17, 2025 (BSS) - Chief Adviser's Special Envoy Lutfey Siddiqi has said Bangladesh should negotiate free trade agreements (FTAs) or economic partnership agreements with key countries to obtain friction-free access to their markets since its graduation from LDC status is unavoidable. 
 
"We have to negotiate free trade agreements or economic partnership agreements with key countries so that we obtain friction-free access to their markets," he said.

Increasingly, Siddiqi said, these agreements entail multiple chapters, comprehensively covering a wide range of topics beyond tariffs to include labour standards and movement of people.

The chief adviser's special envoy made the remarks while delivering his keynote speech at the ILO Asia-Pacific Conference on Labour and LDC Issues in Bangkok on Tuesday, according to a press release issued by the Chief Adviser's Press Wing here today.

Highlighting the country's socioeconomic perspectives, he said in terms of nominal GDP, Bangladesh probably ranks 135th in the world and by landmass, Bangladesh is 94th in the world.

However, he said, in terms of population, Bangladesh is the 8th largest country in the world, while there are only seven countries with more people in them. 

"And of those seven countries, only two have a younger population than ours. And none of them is remotely as crowded as us." 

"Putting it altogether, we have an exceptionally large cohort of young people, standing cheek to jowl, without much elbow room, digitally connected enough to hold big dreams, but not economically empowered enough to realise them," he said.  

A year ago, Siddiqi said, they (the youths) staged a dramatic uprising and through enormous sacrifice, they gave Bangladesh the gift of a new beginning: a journey of reforms and an opportunity to practice better governance. 

And in about a year's time, they're being told that they will graduate up from the status of a least developed country (LDC), he mentioned. 

He said being an LDC gave Bangladesh duty-free and quota-free preferential access to developed, consumer markets. 

"Especially on the backdrop of a globalising world (where global trade was growing at multiples of global GDP and supply-chains became a prominent method of production), we harnessed that very well by building a ready-made garments industry (RMG)," the chief adviser's special envoy said.
 
He said RMG makes up the vast majority of Bangladesh exports, a significant chunk of which depends on LDC-related preferential access. 

"Over at home, LDC status allowed us to produce generic pharmaceutical products without paying for intellectual property, enabling virtually all of domestic supply and some modest exports. 

"And LDC status also allows us to access international finance more cheaply than what may be commercially available," he said.

To his knowledge, Siddiqi said, compared to any other country, the economy of Bangladesh is uniquely reliant, perhaps overly-reliant, on LDC privileges. "Consequently, re-shaping that economy for a post-LDC world is a uniquely complex challenge."

Acknowledging that the fact of graduation is unavoidable, he said even if it is delayed by a couple of years, it does not change their book of work. 

In fact, the changing world-order of aid and tariffs in just the last few months should make it clear that there are fewer unilateral, non-reciprocal, unconditional favours out there, Siddiqi said. 

He said: "No-one will say to us: please enjoy these privileges, continue to access our markets, protect your own markets, and do whatever you like with labour, environmental or intellectual property standards." 

The best Bangladesh can do is try to ensure a smooth transition as opposed to a sudden, "cliff switch" in its terms of trade, he said.   

"Not only acknowledge, but embrace the opportunities that derive from graduation. Remember, we have sound fundamentals in terms of people and location and we should be attracting considerable investments if we get this right. 

"We are starting with a positive vision, a recipe for reforms, which should quickly move onto a time-bound roadmap of who needs to do what by when," Siddiqi said.

He said Bangladesh needs to diversify exports and this will require more deliberate sales and marketing of its existing products and building the capacity to make new products. 

The envoy observed that creation of new products and industries would require new investment, especially foreign investment. 

"That in turn will require practical reforms in logistics, customs, ports, inland waterways, airports etc. And that will require reforms in public administration - in the way government operates - including nationwide digital processes that will formalise large parts of the informal sector."

He said skills and training needs urgent focus: targeted training to help workers and entrepreneurs to face competition and meet new demand in specialist areas. 

"I was actually in Japan last week partly to help conclude our first ever major FTA/EPA with them, but also to help establish a structured process through which we can send 100,000 skilled workers in targeted vocations over there," he said. 

Siddiqi said perhaps most relevant for this forum is that Bangladesh's most important export markets - the European Union for example - will only "extend our preferential access to their markets (what's known as GSP Plus) if we explicitly and verifiably upgrade our standards, especially labour standards". 

He said: "Conversely, if we can demonstrate credible progress in the advancement of those standards, we are likely to receive a sympathetic ear when we ask for transitional privileges."

About labour sector reforms, Siddiqi said in a post-uprising Bangladesh, the labour reforms agenda is a moral imperative. 

Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus' government is committed to promoting dignity and decency in the workplace because that is the right thing to do, consistent with their values and mandate, he said. 

"For the first time in history, we stood up a national-level Labour Reform Commission alongside the fundamental commissions looking at constitutional, parliamentary or judiciary reforms. And these are being taken through a consensus-building process with all political parties ahead of the elections," the special envoy said.

But, he said, in addition to its normative motivation, Bangladesh's business community supports its labour reforms agenda for their own enlightened self-interest: the fact that it has a direct bearing on our access to export markets.

"Sure, we're nervous about possible risks in execution and implementation. But let's be clear: negotiating an extension to LDC graduation or negotiating favourable post-LDC terms will not be easy for a song as we have an Article 26 complaint hanging over us at the ILO governing board," he said.

Siddiqi said the good news is that Bangladesh expects to have completed the bulk of its obligations under the roadmap agreed with the ILO: both in terms of legislation and in the conduct of labour relations.