Tariffs will be disastrous for Bangladesh, Rubana Huq says
The former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Rubana Huq, has said export tariffs of 37%, which the US is imposing on the Asian country, will be disastrous.
She pointed out that the US was now the biggest market for clothes made in Bangladesh and that direct competitors for a share of export markets, India and Pakistan, have come out of April’s tariff turmoil slightly better off. India faces tariffs of 26%, while the rate for Pakistan is 29%.
“It is difficult for us to see any light at this point,” Ms Huq told the BBC.
Now chair of Mohammadi Group, a conglomerate that includes manufacturers of knitted garments, woven garments and intimate apparel, Ms Huq said customers in the US were already deferring shipments of apparel exports.
She explained that one of the most obvious difficulties this would cause in the short term was that payments would also be deferred. “Garment workers are going to be hit,” she said. “We have 4 million people working in this industry in Bangladesh and 65% of them are women.”
The tariff announcements from the US came just as Bangladesh and other Muslim countries were celebrating Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan. The festival of Eid al-Adha falls in early June this year.
Rubana Huq explained that, for these festivals, employers usually pay bonuses to workers and that, with “liquidity levels” hit by the tariff turmoil, she did not know where the extra money would come from for many garment manufacturing companies.
Image: International Labour Organization.
