The February 2026 U.S.–Bangladesh Agreement on Reciprocal Trade is being sold as a commercial bargain, but its most dangerous provisions are not about tariffs at all. They are about power. Buried inside the language of “economic and national security” is a framework that pulls Bangladesh steadily into Washington’s strategic orbit. Articles 3.1–3.3 already narrow Dhaka’s policy space on digital taxation and customs duties on electronic transmissions. But Articles 4.1–4.3 go much further: they push Bangladesh towards alignment with American sanctions, export controls, investment scrutiny, and defence preferences. This is not free trade. It is conditional sovereignty. 

The bluntest example is Article 4.1. It states that if the United States adopts a border measure or other trade action it considers relevant to its own economic or national security, Bangladesh, after notification and consultations, “shall adopt or maintain a complementary restrictive measure” in support of the U.S. step. Article 4.2 then requires Bangladesh to harmonise its export-control regime with U.S. controls on sensitive technologies and goods, and to ensure Bangladeshi companies do not “backfill or undermine” those controls. It also calls on Bangladesh to help restrict transactions that would violate U.S. sanctions or export controls if they had occurred in the United States or involved a U.S. person. The footnote makes clear the reference........

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