Bangladesh Export Policy 2024-2027 — three-year export-promotion framework with $110bn target and post-LDC transition design

Mechanism

The Export Policy is Bangladesh's principal three-year framework instrument for orchestrating export promotion across ministries, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh Bank (cash-incentive disbursement), and the National Board of Revenue (duty drawback / bonded-warehouse). The 2024-2027 cycle is structurally significant for three reasons:

1. Post-LDC graduation transition. Bangladesh graduates from LDC status on 24 November 2026, losing automatic Everything-But-Arms (EBA) duty-free/quota-free access to the EU and equivalent preferential access in several other markets. The 2024-2027 policy is the explicit bridge: it diversifies the cash-incentive structure away from RMG-only and stages WTO-compliant replacement instruments (in line with WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures discipline that bites once LDC carve-outs lapse).

2. Sector tiering — "highest priority" vs. "special development". The policy formally segments target sectors into a top tier eligible for the broadest cash-incentive + tax-relief stack (RMG/textiles, leather, jute, ICT/software, pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, light engineering, plastics) and a wider "special development" tier with narrower instruments. This tiering is the operative input the cash- incentive notifications issued by Bangladesh Bank inherit each FY.

3. $110bn target by FY2026-27. Roughly doubles the FY2023-24 ~$56bn base (merchandise + services). Even policy commentators inside Bangladesh — including the Yunus interim government that took office in August 2024 — have characterised the target as unrealistic, and the Business Standard reported in 2025 that the interim cabinet was preparing to revise the target downward. As of the latest public reporting (May 2026), no formal revision has been gazette-published — the 2024-2027 framework remains in force.

Downstream implications

• EU/UK/Canada apparel buyers (H&M, Inditex/Zara, Primark, M&S,

Uniqlo, Walmart-routed suppliers) face a structural cost step-up on Bangladesh sourcing post-November 2026 unless EU-Bangladesh GSP+ conditionality (labour-rights, governance) is met. The 2024-2027 Policy sets the domestic compliance scaffolding (labour, factory safety, environmental) that GSP+ assessment will reference.

• Cash-incentive disbursement — Bangladesh Bank's annual cash-

incentive circulars (Foreign Exchange Policy Department) operationalise the Policy's sector tier list. Companies dependent on incentive receivables (e.g. exporting RMG composites with backward-linkage textile claim) read the Policy to predict next-FY incentive scope.

• Section 301 vector. The 2026-03-11 USTR initiation of a Section

301 investigation into Bangladesh "structural excess capacity" in apparel (already filed in the IPTM register) directly references the cash-incentive structure that this Policy codifies — making the Policy the upstream Bangladesh-side instrument the US case is built against.

• Ministry-of-Commerce ↔ EPB ↔ Bangladesh Bank coordination — the

Policy is the trilateral master document; subsequent SROs (Statutory Regulatory Orders) and Bangladesh Bank circulars derive their authority from it.

Open questions

• Has the Yunus interim government issued a formal revision to the

$110bn target or to the sector tier list since August 2024? (As of May 2026, no gazette amendment located — track Bangladesh Gazette and Ministry of Commerce notification stream.)

• What is the scheduled WTO-compliant replacement for the cash-

incentive scheme post-LDC graduation? The Policy text references "alternative support mechanisms" but does not enumerate them.

• Will EU GSP+ eligibility be granted in time for November 2026? If

not, the tariff cliff hits the full RMG tier and revises the Policy's underlying revenue assumptions sharply downward.

• How does this Policy interact with the Bangladesh Bank cash-

incentive circulars (FY2024-25, FY2025-26)? Required follow-up: file each FY incentive circular as a child action under responds_to: [2024-02-25-bangladesh-export-policy-2024-2027].