The government is set to sign a deal with Boeing to buy 14 planes valued between Tk 30,000 crore and Tk 35,000 crore for Biman as part of the country’s efforts to reduce the trade gap with the US, and in return have the tariff on Bangladeshi products cut.
“A techno-financial analysis has been completed based on the proposals received from Airbus and Boeing. A negotiation team led by Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud negotiated the price with Boeing,” Commerce and Civil Aviation Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin said at a press conference at his office yesterday.
“This negotiation is still ongoing. If we complete this process, Alhamdulillah, but if not, unfortunately, we won’t be able to complete our procurement,” the adviser said.
“The aircraft buying proposal that we are making may be valued between Tk 30,000 crore and Tk 35,000 crore. We will have to pay this amount over 10 years. In fact, it may take even longer than that, because the payment schedule is very long-term. It may take as much as 20 years to complete the payment. So, if you consider this, we may have to pay around Tk 1,500 crore to Tk 2,000 crore per year,” he added.
According to sources, Biman will buy eight 787-10s, two 787-9s, and four 737 MAX 8s from Boeing.
Meanwhile, a senior commerce ministry official, requesting anonymity, told The Daily Star yesterday that the Trump administration may reduce the reciprocal tariff rate for Bangladesh to 18 percent from the current 20 percent after the signing of a trade agreement following Dhaka’s negotiations with Washington.
The signing ceremony is scheduled to be held in a hybrid format today. Adviser Bashir Uddin and Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman will attend virtually, while some senior officials of the ministry have travelled to Washington to take part in person alongside their American counterparts.
During the negotiations, Bangladesh has promised to increase imports of American goods and reduce the bilateral trade gap.
In exchange, the US will not levy tariffs on garment items made from American raw materials such as cotton, according to Secretary Rahman.
Asked about the trade deal with the US, Bashir Uddin sounded optimistic, noting that the 37 percent tariff initially imposed on Bangladesh was negotiated down to 20 percent.
“Unfortunately, we were embarrassed there. We are the only country in the world from which the terms of this agreement were made public globally. Even then, we have significantly brought the tariff down to 20 percent compared to our competitor countries.
“If this agreement had not been made public, I firmly believe that we would have secured a rate even lower than 20 percent,” he said.
“We promised to buy 25 aircraft...But whenever any agreement is in the early stages, there is always a Non-Disclosure Agreement. This Non-Disclosure Agreement means that if anyone wants to buy property or enter into any bilateral contract, there is a non-disclosure clause until the contract is executed. Once the contract is signed, the agreement will certainly be disclosed. I don’t see any issue with the disclosure.”
“We are hopeful that under the agreement scheduled for the 9th… We were trying to see how much further it could be reduced. At this moment, I do not want to say, nor am I able to tell you, how much it will be reduced. We will see based on the discussions,” he added.
He said the government’s effort was not only focused on reducing the overall tariff, but also on ensuring that the tariff on Bangladesh’s main product, garments, becomes zero. “We are continuing that effort.”
“In this context, our existing export volume of Tk 1 lakh crore holds the potential to increase significantly. Our objective is to utilise this potential,” he added.
