Negotiation is the key to tackle Trump tariffs
On 2 April, US President Donald Trump announced that the US is imposing reciprocal tariffs to match duties put on US goods by other countries. The US president displayed a poster that listed reciprocal tariffs, including 37% on Bangladesh, a significant rise from the current 15%
This is not a reciprocal tariff the way we understand it. It is a tariff schedule targeting the countries with trade surpluses with the US.
But the question is: why has the US used this naïve formula?
The answer is: this is what they wanted to do—identify the countries with high trade surpluses with them and bring them to the negotiation table with a strong message: If you want to sell your products to the US market, you have to reciprocate by buying US products.
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I want to believe that this is a threat - a credible threat – a hardball negotiation tactic. So, negotiation is the key!
On 2 April, US President Donald Trump announced that the US is imposing reciprocal tariffs to match duties put on US goods by other countries.
The US president displayed a poster that listed reciprocal tariffs, including 37% on Bangladesh, a significant rise from the current 15%.
Dr Kazi Iqbal is the Research Director at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
