The agreement on reciprocal tariff between Bangladesh and the United States was signed on Monday.

On the Bangladesh side, the signatories were commerce adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin and national security adviser Khalilur Rahman, and on US side ambassador Jamieson Greer, US tade representative.

Negotiations on the agreement spanned over nine months since April last year.

Ambassador Greer lauded chief adviser Muhammad Yunus for his overarching leadership of the negotiations process and praised the Bangladesh negotiating team for its "incredible efforts."

"This agreement will fit Bangladesh on US trade policy", he said.

After the signing, commerce adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin, who led the Bangladesh side in negotiations, said that the agreement marked a historically new level in our bilateral economic and trade relations.

"It will provide substantially enhanced access of Bangladesh and the US to each other's respective markets", he said.

The US will further reduce reciprocal tariff to 19 per cent, which was originally set at 37 per cent and later reduced to 20 percent in August last year.

In addition, the US committed to establishing a mechanism for certain textile and apparel goods from Bangladesh using US produced cotton and man-made fiber to receive zero reciprocal tariff in US market.

"The reduction of reciprocal tariff will grant further advantage to our exporters, while zero reciprocal tariff on specific textile and apparel exports from Bangladesh using US inputs will give substantial added impetus to our garments sector", said NSA Rahman who was Bangladesh's chief negotiator.

The agreement was approved by the Council of Advisers on Monday and will be operational once notifications are issued by the two sides.

Present during the signing were Commerce Secretary of Bangladesh Mahbubur Rahman and Assistant US trade Representative Mr Brendan Lynch.