The EU Bilateral Trade and Cooperation Agreements with Bangladesh: Factors explaining the position of Bangladesh (as an LDC) to follow the East Asian and Southeast Asian Model

Bangladesh is one of the most promising and fast-developing countries among the LDCs from the UN list. Bangladesh passed colonial the period from the British and bloody liberation war with Pakistan in 1971 with lots of destruction, poverty and infrastructure damaged, made the country the most improvised nation in the world. Therefore, the economy started raised by the development of Agricultural, then “structural change” made with RMG, the number of labor-force earning remittance, the private-led NGOs, moreover some emerging sectors e.g., pharmaceutical, leather industry, light engineering, are inline trade with the global economy which helps to come out from the aid independent country to trade development country. The shifting from Agricultural products to Garments and emerging sectors (IT, Telecom, Pharmaceuticals), often compared to the Flying Geese model that has seen Japan to East Asia the developing to Southeast Asia (Hossain, 2020). However, to develop with those potential sectors and also RMG has facing many challenges which been undermining the development. Many reports (McKinsey, World Bank, and UN) argued that Bangladesh could have the potentialities to become an Asian tiger if they eradicate obstacles. Therefore, two-fifths of the Bangladesh economy relates to the global economy which came out from the RMG exportation as the second-largest exporters in the world (Hossain, 2019). In which, the EU is the main trade partner of Bangladesh, promoting responsible Global Value Chain by the trade liberalization policy, thanks to EBA trade of duty-free and quota-free market preferential market with GSP, moreover, the EU cooperation agreements and EU “sustainability compact” helps to develops the country’s human rights, governance, and sustainable development. This thesis will guide all the potentials and challenges as an LDC and trade with the EU.