Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Bangladesh's Ministry of Commerce issued the Import Policy Order 2025-2028 on 29 January 2026 following Council of Advisers approval chaired by Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, replacing the prior Import Policy Order 2021-2024 and establishing a modernised three-year import-management framework under the Imports and Exports (Control) Act 1950. The Order permits export-oriented industries — including ready-made garments, leather, footwear, shipbuilding, and furniture — to import essential raw materials at zero duty through the bonded-warehouse mechanism, mandates full e-customs adoption for all duty and tax collection, and introduces risk-based post-clearance audit protocols. It is explicitly designed as the trade-management vehicle for Bangladesh's LDC graduation (effective November 2026), aligning the import regime with WTO non-tariff- barrier obligations and preparing for the loss of GSP/EBA preferences.

Bangladesh Bank's Foreign Exchange Policy Department issued FE Circular No. 46 on 12 November 2025, extending the existing 0.30% special cash-assistance (export subsidy) on net FOB value of readymade garment (RMG) and textile exports — previously payable only to manufacturer-exporters producing in their own factories under FE Circular No. 01/2020 — to output manufactured and exported through sub-contracting arrangements, at the same 0.30% rate and same terms. Eligibility is conditioned on the principal firm holding an operating factory of its own and both parties following the 2019 Sub-Contracting Guideline for the RMG industry and the 2024 rules for direct export-oriented garment establishments operating bonded warehouses; pure trading firms with no production capacity are excluded. The change applies to goods shipped from the circular's issuance date onward.

Bangladesh's Council of Advisers, chaired by Chief Adviser Prof. Muhammad Yunus, approved the National Logistics Policy 2025 on 6 November 2025 at its 47th meeting, replacing the annulled 2024 Awami League-era logistics policy. The framework spans 11 chapters and establishes a technology-driven, integrated, sustainable logistics ecosystem aimed at positioning Bangladesh as a leading regional trade and logistics hub by 2050. Two-tier governance architecture: a National Logistics Council (led by the Chief Adviser) for top-level coordination, and a National Logistics Development and Coordination Committee (led by the Chief Adviser's Principal Secretary) for implementation oversight across multimodal hubs, economic zones, international corridors, airports, river ports, sea ports, and land ports.

Bangladesh Bank's Foreign Exchange Policy Department issued Circular No. 14 of 20 April 2025, amending paragraph 26, Chapter 7 of the Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Transactions, 2018 (GFET-2018) to liberalise import-LC discrepancy-handling procedures. Authorised Dealers (AD banks) may now settle discrepant import bills against importer-issued indemnity-and-waiver letters without prior Bangladesh Bank approval, provided discrepancies do not contravene UCP-600 or constitute material changes as defined in GFET-2018 para 31(c). The same treatment is extended to back-to-back import LCs under the export-oriented bonded-warehouse and EPZ regime, directly benefiting Bangladesh's garment-manufacturing sector in settling raw-material import payments against export-LC proceeds.

Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue, acting on a March 2025 Ministry of Commerce directive, issued a notification on 13 April 2025 prohibiting yarn imports through all land-border customs stations, including Benapole, Bhomra, Banglabandha, Burimari, and Sonamasjid. Imports of yarn may continue only through seaports and airports. The stated rationale is systematic under-invoicing of land-port yarn shipments — declared values were found significantly below Chattogram customs-house benchmark prices — which NBR and the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission concluded was severely damaging domestic spinning-mill competitiveness. The restriction is the first BD import-restrictive measure in the IPTM register and triggered India's retaliatory DGFT Notification 07/2025-26 of 17 May 2025 restricting entry of Bangladeshi exports into India.

Three-year export-promotion policy issued by the Bangladesh Ministry of Commerce on 25 February 2024 covering FY2024-25 through FY2026-27. Sets a $110bn merchandise+services export target by FY2026-27 (vs. ~$56bn FY2023-24 base), restructures the cash-incentive regime, and designates "highest priority" and "special development" sectors including ready-made garments, leather, jute, ICT, pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, light engineering, and plastics. Explicitly designed as the transition framework for navigating Bangladesh's LDC graduation (effective 24 November 2026), at which point the country will lose EU Everything-But-Arms duty-free access and face an estimated 10% average MFN tariff on EU exports.

Bangladesh's Cabinet approved the National Industrial Policy 2022 on 11 August 2022, replacing the National Industrial Policy 2016 as the country's foundational umbrella industrial-policy statute; the Ministry of Industries gazetted it on 29 September 2022. The policy sets a target to raise industry's share of GDP to 40% by 2027 and introduces a sector taxonomy covering export-diversification, special-development (electronics, automotive assembly, semiconductors, renewable energy, defence-electronics), priority, reserved, and controlled categories. CMSMEs (Cottage, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) are designated the "main driving force of industrialisation," with sector-specific concessional finance, tax holidays, and cluster-development frameworks, alongside FDI incentives including Bangladeshi citizenship for investors committing USD 1 million. The policy for the first time formally incorporates Bangladesh's informal sector within a national industrial-policy framework, mandating a National Informal Sector Database and a 2022–2027 implementation action plan.