Dhaka, April 11 -- Let us take US President Donald Trump's words literally. April 2, 2025, he had announced, would be America's Liberation Day. He stuck to his promise on that date by announcing tariffs that would replace free trade with "fair" trade. The duties would liberate America from a global trading system in which other nations were allegedly scrounging off its wealth, so that America could become rich again. To that end, he announced a tariff of 10 per cent on all goods coming into the US from anywhere else in the world, and also imposed substantial "reciprocal" tariffs on at least 60 trading partners, which, he argued, slapped excessively high levies on American products.

Bangladesh is facing a 37 per cent reciprocal tariff, co...