BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

TRADE POLICY REFORMS: BANGLADESH’S EXPERIENCE

Author: M. Emdadul Haq, Sultan Mohammed Zakaria

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2011v32n2a1

ABSTRACT

Bangladesh deliberately pursued protectionist economic and trade policy in its early years. However, the country changed the direction shortly after the abrupt political changes during the mid-seventies and followed the course of reforms in the subsequent years. Although the icebreaking was quite slow, the reform processes accelerated in the early nineties that resulted in many important policy changes. Since then, Bangladesh put its best efforts to go with the pace of globalisation and moved rapidly to dismantle the earlier protectionist image of the country. The paper mainly focuses on how Bangladesh persistently adopted the reform measures in its trade policy and gradually approached towards the liberalising process through making adjustment to relevant policies and other agendas. It illustrates the changes made to some key trade policy areas, including import and export regimes, exchange rate policy, industrial policy, monetary and fiscal policies, etc.