Bangladesh recently sought from the United Nations export duty waivers on its products for 10 to 12 years past its graduation from a least developed country (LDC) to a developing one in 2024.
The reason is the country's economy, exports, supply chains and employment have been severely damaged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The three prerequisites set by the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) to graduate from the LDC status are are gross national income, human assets index and economic vulnerability index. The UNCDP will assess the country's graduation requirements again next year.
The European Union (EU) had already announced that it will continue the zero-duty benefit for Bangladesh after the graduation for three more years as a grace period for preparations. But the Bangladesh commerce ministry sent a letter to the EU last month requesting continuation of the generalized system of preferences (GSP) under its Everything but Arms (EBA) initiative for 10 more years following the graduation.
