, Sept. 8 -- Bangladesh's actual protection at the border is roughly double what its tariff schedule suggests, with regulatory and supplementary duties, not customs tariffs, driving both the distortion and the fiscal risk of reform, according to a new World Bank study presented on Tuesday.

The study, titled "Bangladesh Trade Policy at a Crossroads: Evidence for the National Tariff Policy, LDC Graduation, and the Next Generation of Trade Agreements," was presented by Nora Dihel, Senior Economist for Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment at the World Bank, at a programme organised by the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) at its Banani office.

Using FY2026 data, the study finds Bangladesh's trade-weighted average Most Favoured N...