This February, Bangladesh received the endorsement of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) regarding its final timeline for exiting the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) group. Bangladesh is now scheduled to leave the LDC category in 2026.
As we leave the group, Bangladesh will miss out on the LDC -specific preferences and privileges afforded by its international development partners. The most specific and significant loss will be duty-free and quota-free (DFQF) market access for the country's export items.
This is a situation that all Bangladesh exporters will be watching most closely. The EU (along with the huge UK) market currently accounts for about 62 percent of apparel exports and nearly 56 percent of all exports from Bangladesh. Losing these huge trading benefits overnight represents a serious risk for Bangladesh's export competitiveness. Logically, addressing DFQF loss-related fallouts—particularly in the EU market—must be a core pillar of Bangladesh's LDC graduation (transition) strategy.