Bangladesh

India’s withdrawal of the trans-shipment facility marks more than a bureaucratic hiccup—it represents a tectonic shift in South Asian trade geopolitics. At the heart of it lies the Bangladeshi apparel industry, now navigating increased costs, longer transit times, and geopolitical uncertainty. The episode underscores how strategic rivalry between India and China is beginning to shape—even weaponise—trade logistics and bilateral relationships.

The lesson of the current US tariffs crisis roiling the trade world is this: you cannot keep relying on one country as your export destination. From now on it has to be ‘US Plus One’.

As Bangladesh grapples with overlapping political, economic, and labour market challenges, a new research on the country’s readymade garment sector has unearthed presence of child labour, including under illegal terms of work and in hazardous conditions, abuse of vulnerability of individuals living below the poverty line, abusive working conditions, among other things.

A new report identifies likely scenarios for Bangladesh’s industrial sectors, and opportunities to accelerate just industry transitions both through direct grant-making and multistakeholder collaboration.

A report by the Global Labor Institute warns that if 4 key hubs of garment production fail to make climate adaptation investments, nearly one million new apparel and footwear jobs will be foregone by 2030.

The much-awaited report of the US International Trade Commission which looked at the export competitiveness of five Asian apparel-manufacturing countries has been released.

A first of its kind study has found that Bangladesh’s leather industry employs poverty-stricken children as young as eight, making them work in dangerous and harmful conditions at every stage of leather processing and production.

As of now brands and retailers that source from Bangladesh—and that have witnessed the industry’s sizeable safety and environmental investments—remain patient and committed. The long-term scenario, however, could be anyone's guess. texfash.com rounds up voices from across the globe.

Border posts remain clogged, orders and payments are stuck, and amidst all there’s also a lot of talk that the political upheaval in neighbouring Bangladesh could see shifting of orders to India. But, till government tweaks some policies, Indian apparel manufacturers making hay from the Bangla crisis appears wishful thinking.

Bangladesh's readymade garments (RMG) industry grew by a whopping 280% during the 15-year tenure of Sheikh Hasina Wazed's Awami League. Both the League and the RMG industry fed off each other, but with Hasina being ousted and public sentiments overwhelmingly against the Awami League, the country's political turmoil is bound to take its toll on the RMG industry.