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Bangladesh pleads for tariff pause as US buyers freeze garment orders
Facing a 37 per cent tariff, the world’s second-largest garment producer wants a three-month delay as US firms slam the brakes on shipments
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US buyers have begun halting orders from Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest garment manufacturer, after punishing US tariffs were announced that pushed the government in Dhaka to plead for a three-month pause to the levies.
Textile and garment production accounts for about 80 per cent of exports in Bangladesh and the industry has been rebuilding after it was hit hard in a student-led revolution that toppled the government last year.
US President Donald Trump announced biting new tariffs of 37 per cent on Bangladesh last week, raising duties from the previous 16 per cent on cotton products.
Reports of the swift impact come as interim leader Muhammad Yunus pleaded with Trump to “postpone the application of US reciprocal tariff measures”, the government said in a statement on Monday.
Yunus wrote to Trump to ask for “three months to allow the interim government to smoothly implement its initiative to substantially increase US exports to Bangladesh”, the statement added.
Those products include “cotton, wheat, corn and soybean which will offer benefits to US farmers”, it read.
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