The Bangladesh Government is carefully examining the conditions for becoming a member of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest trade bloc led by China, while also evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of joining the treaty.
Media reports have claimed this recently.
It may be mentioned here, established in January of the previous year, the RCEP, consisting of 15 countries accounts for about 30 per cent of the world’s population (2.3 billion people) and a market worth US $ 26.3 trillion.
The Commerce Ministry has initiated a formal review of the commitments that Bangladesh must fulfill to join the bloc even if to gain insights, the Ministry is reportedly studying the commitments made by RCEP member countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, which have similar economic profiles to Bangladesh.
An official from the Commerce Ministry, requesting anonymity, reportedly shared that Bangladesh may need to make comparable commitments to those of existing RCEP members and therefore, a meeting has been scheduled to assess Bangladesh’s capacity to meet these commitments.
Noor Md Mahbubul Haq, Additional Secretary of the Commerce Ministry, mentioned that a study on Bangladesh’s potential accession to the RCEP had been conducted as well.
