Bangladesh looking to sign Free Trade Agreement with Turkey

A MoU for Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed with Turkey on Wednesday at the Turkey-Bangladesh Business Forum – 2017. FBCCI’s First Vice President Sheikh Fazle Fahim and Turkish Exporters’ Assembly member of sector council Basaran Bayrak signed the agreement. Speaking at the forum, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said: “Bangladesh is very interested to sign the FTA with Turkey which will increase trade and commerce. According to data from Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), in the last fiscal year, Bangladesh exported $631.63 million worth of goods to Turkey; while Bangladesh imported goods and services worth $212.30 million from Turkey. “Since the tariff rate is very high for Bangladeshi products entering into the Turkish market, I hope, the FTA will open a new window of economic opportunities for two countries. “The bilateral trade between the two countries is currently worth $843.93 million. The signing of the FTA would help boots the export of RMG, pharmaceuticals, frozen fish, dry food, jute and jute products, leather, plastic and ceramic products, ship building and light engineering products to Turkey. “As a least developed country, Bangladesh is supposed to get duty-free, quota-free (DFQF) market access to the developed and more developing countries. If that cannot be achieved, our first preference is to have a bilateral FTA with Turkey to avail referential market access,” said Tofail Ahmed.