From red tape to fast lanes: New import policy order could turbo-charge Bangladesh trade

Bangladesh Customs now handles roughly 250 food and farm consignments every day — triple the load of a decade ago — yet manpower has barely budged. Photo: TBS

Bangladesh's current import inspection system, involving 100% checks on food and agricultural consignments, starkly contrasts with global norms where most countries inspect merely 5% to 25% of such consignments. 

This extensive inspection process significantly delays imports, resulting in an average release time exceeding seven days for food and agricultural products. Such delays, particularly detrimental to perishable items, escalate costs, negatively impact market dynamics, and reduce export competitiveness.

Chattogram seaport, Bangladesh's primary gateway, is emblematic of these procedural inefficiencies, averaging 270 hours to clear imports compared to just 30 hours in Thailand and 95 hours in India, as revealed by respective Time Release Studies. This backlog disrupts supply chains, directly impacts consumers, and raises costs for businesses.

At the heart of the tangle is the Import Policy Order (IPO), the quasi-legal handbook that dictates what can enter the country and how. The document has seen only cosmetic tweaks in a decade, drifting out of sync with World Trade Organization (WTO) norms and with the volume of modern trade. As the government drafts a new edition, business groups say it is the single biggest lever for boosting Bangladesh's trade competitiveness. 

From 'inspect everything' to 'inspect what matters'

Bangladesh Customs now handles roughly 250 food and farm consignments every day — triple the load of a decade ago — yet manpower has barely budged. The result is a bottleneck: every shipment undergoes full physical and laboratory checks, detaining fresh apples for a week, milk powder for nearly ten, and sometimes stretching testing to 30 days. 

A Bangladesh Trade Facilitation (BTF) Project study estimates these delays add Tk10.34 per kg to apple prices and Tk6.41 to milk powder while eroding shelf life and consumer confidence.

The cure is hardly radical. More than a dozen trading nations — including Australia, New Zealand, Cambodia, and Vietnam — already rely on risk-based clearance, inspecting as little as 5% of low-risk goods and reserving strict scrutiny for consignments that truly warrant it. BTF Project calculates that adopting the same approach here would trim average release times by four to five days, cut storage and demurrage costs, and leave households with cheaper grocery bills.

There is also a legal clock ticking. Article 7.4 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement obliges members to implement risk management, and Bangladesh has committed to meet that standard by June 2026. The forthcoming Import Policy Order should offer the legislative lever to lock the reform in place by mandating automated risk profiling, pre-arrival data analysis, and random post-clearance audits.

Moving from blanket inspection to smart screening would let officers concentrate on genuine threats, protect public health, and keep the supply chain moving. Every day, the old system lingers, perishable goods sit on the quay, business costs climb, and family budgets take the hit. 

Time to scrap outdated radioactivity testing rules

One more outdated and unscientific rule in the current IPO is the compulsory radioactivity testing for all imported food and feed. For years, the IPO has mandated that every shipment must be accompanied by a "radioactivity-free" certificate, and nearly all food items—with very few exceptions—are subject to full domestic testing. The rule has never caught a single contaminated consignment, yet it adds up to $500 for each food cargo and roughly $1,200 for animal feed—costs ultimately passed on to consumers through higher prices and slower deliveries.

The rest of the world has long moved on. A review of regulations in over 40 countries reveals that none maintain such stringent, universal testing. After the 2011 Fukushima disaster, 55 nations temporarily restricted certain Japanese imports, but all have since relaxed measures based on risk assessment. Bangladesh, however, persists with double-layer testing, long after global concerns have faded.

The requirement serves no practical purpose. Years of testing have yielded zero non-compliance reports, proving the rule's irrelevance. Instead of blanket testing, a risk-based approach—limited to imports from regions with recent nuclear incidents — would safeguard public health without stifling trade. The forthcoming IPO should offer a chance to align with global best practice. The new IPO should eliminate this outdated rule, cutting costs for businesses and streamlining import processes — all while maintaining scientific vigilance where it truly matters.

End the empty hunt for banned antibiotics in feed imports

For more than a decade, Bangladesh has required every batch of meat-and-bone meal, fish meal and other protein concentrates to be screened for chloramphenicol, nitrofuran, and a handful of long-prohibited antibiotics. The rule was introduced when these drugs were still turning up in global supply chains. Today, however, almost every exporting country has outlawed their use, and years of domestic testing have failed to produce a single positive result.

What the regime does generate is cost. Importers spend additional money per consignment on laboratory certificates abroad, then pay again—and wait again—while the same tests are repeated at home. The expense works its way into the price of poultry and livestock feed, nudging up farm-gate costs and, ultimately, retail food inflation.

Equally troubling is the drag on logistics. Mandatory sampling of every lot forces shipments to sit idle while paperwork is processed, clogging ports and tying up capital that producers could use to improve feed quality or expand production.

None of this buys Bangladesh any measurable safety benefit. With zero violations on record, the current blanket approach cannot be defended as risk management; it is risk theatre. The WTO's Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement encourages controls that are science-based and proportionate to demonstrable hazards. A sensible alternative is targeted, risk-based sampling focused on suppliers or commodities with a history of non-compliance — an approach already adopted by most of Bangladesh's trading partners.

Scrapping compulsory antibiotic screening for low-risk feed ingredients would trim import cost, speed clearance, and ease pressure on food prices without compromising public health. The upcoming IPO is an ideal chance to retire a costly relic and replace it with evidence-driven oversight that works for farmers, consumers, and regulators alike.

Give R&D and non-garment exporters room to breathe

Bangladesh's new IPO could break a quiet bottleneck that has been holding back high-value sectors outside ready-made garments. 

A BTF study shows that pharmaceutical research labs may import no more than $10,000 a year in test samples. Leather exporters, meanwhile, are limited to 500 pairs of shoes—with no quota at all for bags or other leather goods — when trying to match buyers' ever-shifting design specs. Those ceilings are smaller than a single week's R&D bill for a mid-sized pharma plant and a fraction of the sample range big shoe brands demand.

Because samples are permanently perforated or stamped "not for sale," they pose no threat to the domestic market. Yet the red line remains, forcing firms either to ration innovation or source informally. The remedy is simple:

• Raise the annual sample ceiling to $100,000 for pharmaceuticals.
• Allow 5,000 pairs of shoes and 5,000 other leather items — bags, belts, wallets — each year.

Just as important is the way Bangladesh finances its export manufacturing. The garment industry enjoys back-to-back letters of credit, duty — and VAT-free imports of raw materials, and swift bonded-warehouse clearance. Leather, plastics, pharmaceuticals and other rising export sectors run on the same cut-make-trim model, but IPO rules deny them those privileges. Extending the same facilities — and the customs automation that supports them—would level the playing field without costing the exchequer a taka, because all inputs are re-exported after value is added.

With apparel's share of export earnings creeping past 80%, policymakers talk often about diversification. The new IPO is the moment to prove it. By lifting outdated import caps and ending single-sector perks, Bangladesh can give its next wave of exporters the space they need to innovate — and grow. 

Modernising these provisions would cost little but deliver immediate benefits: stronger R&D capabilities in pharmaceuticals, more competitive leather goods, and ultimately, a more diversified export basket. As Bangladesh seeks to reduce its reliance on garment exports, these policy tweaks offer a straightforward path to empower emerging sectors. The time has come to give all exporters the tools they need to compete globally.

Make the rules findable — and understandable

Traders still liken Bangladesh's Import Policy Order to a maze: clauses are scattered, translations patchy, and no one is quite sure which rule applies to which shipment. The result is confusion, room for arbitrary decisions, and costly delays at the border.

The cure is surprisingly simple. First, recast the IPO as a fully indexed handbook grouped by Harmonized System (HS) code clusters and related sectors. A footwear exporter, a pharmaceutical lab, or a machinery dealer should be able to jump straight to the rules that govern their goods instead of paging through hundreds of irrelevant lines.

Second, publish a legally binding English version alongside the Bangla text. Accurate bilingual references will spare global suppliers, investors, and inspectors from guessing at unofficial translations that too often contradict one another.

Finally, back the printed law with a free, searchable online portal. By typing an HS code, keyword, or product description, traders and regulators would get the exact clause, required permits, and contact agencies in seconds — removing the "interpretations" that now fuel rent-seeking and disputes.

Together, a reorganised, bilingual, and digital IPO would replace opacity with predictability, slash compliance costs, and show that Bangladesh is serious about a modern, rules-based trade regime.

IPO crossroads

Bangladesh is poised to enact a new Import Policy Order. Opting for a science-based, risk-driven regime would move cargo through ports more quickly, dampen food inflation, and signal to investors that the country prizes efficiency. Targeted checks would concentrate on high-risk consignments while letting compliant goods sail through, cutting both clearance times and costs.

The stakes reach beyond Bangladesh's borders. With graduation from LDC status imminent, promptly notifying the WTO of the draft IPO would align the country with global trade norms and strengthen its standing as a reliable partner. 

A WTO-compliant order would sharpen competitiveness, bolster economic resilience, and announce that Bangladesh is truly open for business. The choice is stark: cling to constricting red tape — or open the fast lanes that drive growth.

Sketch: TBS

Fuad M Khalid Hossen is the Deputy Chief of Party and Technical Lead at the United States Department of Agriculture-funded Bangladesh Trade Facilitation Project. 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.