Bangladesh and its powerful allies

This is the third of the major international relationships that Bangladesh will deal with in 2022. The relationship with the United States is complicated and elsewhere I discussed this at some length. In 2022, the situation is something like this: There are moderate economic ties based on trade and limited foreign direct investment. There is a strong but limited USAID program that focuses on key development areas but no infrastructure financing. Bangladesh is currently not eligible for those programs that provide funding of budget support and infrastructure. The most important economic relations revolve around the RMG sector as the United States, along with the EU, are the two largest importers of RMG products. This area has involved issues with respect to labour rights and safety measures. These are areas of moderate disputes with Bangladesh resisting excessive and often unrealistic demands by the buyer’s diplomats. We will return to the overall picture of the economic relations later, here the very delicate issues of views on governance are briefly discussed. 

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