Under a trade agreement with the United States, Bangladesh will import agricultural products worth about US $3.5 billion from the country each year.

This commitment is included in Clause 6 of the “commercial understanding” section of the agreement signed between the two countries last Monday.

However, questions have emerged among businesspeople and researchers over how feasible such a large volume of imports would be in practice.

Importers say that fulfilling the commercial understanding will require protection and policy support for industries dependent on imported agricultural raw materials.

Researchers, meanwhile, warn that granting tariff concessions on large volumes of imports from the US, as stipulated in the agreement, could put pressure on government revenue.