Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339392 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
ARTNeT Working Paper Series No. 247
Publisher: 
Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), Bangkok
Abstract: 
This paper assesses Bangladesh's readiness to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) from the perspective of services trade. In Bangladesh, services exports have grown rapidly but remain narrow in scope and overshadowed by rising imports, leading to persistent deficits. RCEP countries account for a substantial share of Bangladesh's services trade. While Bangladesh demonstrates competitiveness in construction and professional services, it lags in ICT, transport, and travel services. Unlike tariffs on goods, barriers to services trade are typically regulatory or institutional in nature. Bangladesh faces regulatory gaps relative to RCEP commitments, including restrictive investment approval processes, equity caps, data localization requirements, and underdeveloped transport and tourism infrastructure. Accession could help secure reciprocal market access and offset the loss of LDC trade preferences after 2026, but will require targeted reforms to liberalize investment regimes, close regulatory gaps, and align domestic policies with RCEP commitments.
Subjects: 
Service Trade
RCEP
Accession
Trade
Policy
Commitments
JEL: 
L81
F13
F15
F23
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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