New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) The US-Bangladesh trade deal “mirrors colonial economics much in the same way that the British exploited India during the pre-Independence era”, according to an article in the Bangladeshi media.

The article in Dhaka’s The Daily Star points out that while the trade deal with the Trump administration allows Bangladesh’s garment exports to enter the US market at “zero duty”, it also makes it mandatory for Bangladesh to produce these goods with cotton and fibre imported from the US.

This means that the tremendous labour, investment, and skills accumulated in Bangladesh’s garment sector now increasingly depend on US cotton and US agricultural policy—how much they produce, the subsidies they offer, the markets they serve, and the prices they set. If those policies change one day, if cotton shifts to other markets, or if new conditions are imposed, the shock will hit Bangladeshi factories, workers’ jobs, and bank loans directly, states the article by Dhaka University Associate Professor Moshahida Sultana.

Just as nineteenth-century Lancashire–India ties turned India into a supplier of raw materials and a captive market for finished goods, today’s “zero duty, but you must use our cotton” type agreements are tying Bangladesh’s largest export sector to the upstream supply chains of U.S. agricultural and corporate interests, the article observed.

It further states that “modern trade and defence agreements carry subtle but sharp pressures — buy more American surveillance systems, communications gear, and precision munitions. Diplomatic language may hint, sometimes bluntly, that certain suppliers should be avoided. Even if names are not mentioned, the message is clear: steer clear of Russia and China. Bit by bit, Bangladesh’s defence purchases are nudged towards a single ecosystem—American platforms, American ammunition, American software and encryption, American spare parts—each stage subject to U.S. export licences, with public funds flowing into American defence firms”.

“Publicly, it is about ‘maritime security’ and ‘threat response’. But the budget books reveal the old colonial logic in a modern uniform: a dependent state’s foreign-exchange reserves used to secure profits for foreign arms companies. The louder the talk of ‘shared security’, the more money drains from Dhaka into distant corporate headquarters,” the article added.

It also opines that buying costly Boeing aeroplanes from the US, regardless of the fact whether such big planes are really required for the country’s needs, will eventually land Bangladesh in a debt trap.

Buying a Boeing appears on paper as “advanced aviation” and “a modern fleet”. In reality, these deals are priced in dollars, taken on through long-term loans or leases, and tied indefinitely to American parts, software, maintenance, and training. Even before such contracts fully take effect, Bangladesh’s imports of aircraft engines from the United States have already risen from Tk 137 crore to Tk 1,852 crore. Even if passenger forecasts prove wrong or the national airline becomes corrupt or inefficient, loan repayments will continue, forcing the public to bear the losses and draining foreign-currency reserves. For a debt-burdened economy, this is literally a recipe for a debt trap, the article lamented.

–IANS

sps/vd