US seeks ties with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, but with a tariff warning: Report

The US is reportedly seeking close ties with the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh, expecting the party to record its best tally in the upcoming general elections in the neighbouring country. But there is a rider.

According to a Washington Post report quoting an anonymous US diplomat, if the Jamaat-e-Islami imposes or tries to impose Sharia law in Bangladesh, the Trump administration would respond by imposing 100 per cent tariffs and would also target Dhaka’s garment industry by stopping orders from the US, which currently accounts for 20 per cent of its exports.

The report further states that the remarks were made by a US diplomat, whom the publication did not name due to security reasons, in Dhaka on December 1 last year, during a closed-door interaction with female Bangladeshi journalists. The Washington Post says it accessed a recording of the conversation.

‘Don’t believe that Jamaat can impose Sharia’

“I simply do not believe that Jamaat can impose Sharia,” the US diplomat reportedly said, adding that if the party makes any such moves, the US “would have 100 per cent tariffs put on them the next day.”

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“We want them to be our friends,” the diplomat said, as quoted in the report, as he asked the journalists whether they could manage to get Jamaat-e-Islami’s powerful students’ wing leaders to their shows.

“Can you talk to them?” he asked, adding, “Will they go on your show?”

Warning on Bangladesh’s garment industry

The diplomat further stated that if the Jamaat-e-Islami were voted to power and resorted to implementing policies that are anathema to the US, Washington would retaliate by targeting Bangladesh’s garment industry.

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“Bangladesh’s entire economy, 20 per cent of your exports to the United States, depends on a series of socially liberal clothing chains and clothing brands,” said the US diplomat.

“If Bangladesh tells women they can only work five hours, or kicks them out … and imposes Sharia law, there will be no more orders. And if there are no more orders, there will be no Bangladeshi economy,” he reportedly added.

‘US seeking to engage other Islamist parties’

However, the diplomat indicated that, along with Jamaat-e-Islami, the US embassy staff may also engage with other conservative Islamist political parties, including Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh and Islami Andolan Bangladesh.

“We want them to be our friends, because we want to be able to pick up the phone and say: 'That thing you just said, ‘So here’s how that’s going to play out,’” he added.

What US embassy said

However, in a statement, Monica Shie, the spokesperson for the US Embassy in Dhaka, said “the conversation that took place in December was a routine gathering, off-the-record discussion between US embassy officials and local journalists.”

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She further stated that “numerous political parties were discussed” during the meeting and that “the United States does not favour one political party over another and plans to work with whichever government is elected by the Bangladeshi people.”