Yunus's rush to ink secretive deal with US has Bangladesh exporters worried

The interim setup of Muhammad Yunus is set to sign a tariff deal with the US. However, the non-disclosure agreement that keeps details shrouded in mystery has got Bangladeshi business leaders concerned. Then there is a bigger question. Is it legal for the unelected Yunus regime to ink a deal even as an elected government could come to office in weeks time?

While US President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with India, the mood in neighbouring Bangladesh is of concern over a deal Dhaka is set to ink with DC. That's because the Bangladesh-US trade agreement is shrouded in secrecy and questions if the unelected Muhammad Yunus administration even has the mandate to ink such a deal. The development follows reports that the Muhammad Yunus administration was propped up by the US deep state in tandem with an Islamist plot that toppled PM Sheikh Hasina's government in 2024.

The secrecy over the deal has sent shivers through Bangladesh as exporter associations and stakeholders of its prized textile sector. They say the contents of the deal could further harm Bangladeshi exports (over 90% of which are readymade garments and textiles) to the US. While Bangladesh's textile industry is already trying to weather the storm triggered by Trump's tariffs, the undisclosed deal risks adversely affecting the mass-employing sectors and could jolt Bangladeshi economy altogether.

Then there's the question over the deal's legality. The US-Bangladesh trade deal is expected to be inked on February 9, just three days before Bangladesh's election. This has raised questions about why it is being signed by the Yunus administration, and that, too, in its final days in office. Nobody knows what the draft agreement contains, as the Yunus administration in 2025 signed a non-disclosure agreement with the US, reported Bangladeshi daily, Prothom Alo.

This kind of opaqueness and haste by the Yunus administration is not limited to the trade deal with the US, and that raises a stink, according to Bangladeshi economist and intellectual, Anu Muhammad. In a Facebook post, Muhammad questioned the "urgency to lease a port, import arms, and sign subordination agreements with the United States just a few days before the national election".

Anu Muhammad asked whose interests were being served by the February 9 Bangladesh-US trade agreement. He alleged that agreements were being pushed in a "completely non-transparent, illogical, and irregular manner", claiming that foreign "lobbyists" had been placed inside the Yunus administration as advisers and were "desperate to make these agreements". The Facebook post by economist Anu Muhammad in Bangla.

There are allegations that Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate, was brought in to head an interim regime with the active support of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami. The buzz over the trade deal also coincides with reports of American diplomats engaging supportively with the Jamaat, which is projected to emerge as a major player in the February 12 election.