Simon McDonald, Permanent Under-Secretary of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office disclosed that post Brexit the UK would continue to provide tariff-free market access for Bangladeshi goods. This was announced during the UK-Bangladesh second Strategic Dialogue in London.

The discussions centred on political and bilateral issues, economic and development cooperation, security and defence cooperation, amongst other issues. McDonald elaborated, “The Strategic Dialogue was held at an important juncture for both countries as the UK prepares to leave the EU and Bangladesh advances to middle-income country status. I repeated the UKs commitment to continue tariff-free market access for Bangladeshi goods entering the UK market after the UK leaves the EU.”

Bangladesh’s Md. Shahidul Haque said, “The second Strategic Dialogue provided us an important opportunity to discuss how both sides can encourage the transition to a broader relationship between the UK and Bangladesh in the post-Brexit and post-LDC context. We agreed to plan now for a future development partnership focussed on innovation, knowledge, skills development and employment while continuing to ensure that no-one is left behind, especially women, girls, and people with disabilities. We appreciated the UK Government’s firm commitment to continue to provide duty-free, quota-free market access to Bangladeshi goods to the UK market after it left the EU. We highlighted the valuable contribution that the British-Bangladeshi community continues to contribute to British society and prosperity,” he added.

The UK welcomed Bangladesh’s efforts and commitment to improving performance against the World Bank’s “Doing Business Index”. Both sides agreed that trade was an important tool in tackling poverty and that increasing bilateral trade could bring significant benefits to both countries.