\n ![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.tbsnews.net\/sites\/all\/themes\/sloth\/images\/google_news.svg\")
\n Keep updated, follow The Business Standard’s Google news channel
\n <\/a><\/p>\nBeyond the freeze in new orders, the tariff\u2014imposed by President Donald Trump after the US Supreme Court scrapped reciprocal tariffs\u2014has triggered renegotiations on existing shipments.<\/p>\n
Several US buyers are now demanding 2% price cuts on goods already in the pipeline, following the reduction of the tariff from 20% to 15%. Exporters say the move threatens to further erode already thin margins.<\/p>\n
Infograph: TBS<\/p>\n
“> <\/p>\n
![\"Infograph:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/p1_lead_infograph_us-tariff-turmoil.jpg\" "\\"\\"\/")
<\/p>\n
Infograph: TBS<\/p>\n
Buyers ‘sitting on the fence’\n<\/p>\n
At least eight Bangladeshi exporters told The Business Standard that US clients are “sitting on the fence” amid rapidly shifting trade policies. Seven reported a clear pause in decision-making, warning that order flows will not normalise without long-term policy clarity.<\/p>\n
Shovon Islam, managing director of Sparrow Group, said buyers are in observation mode.<\/p>\n
“They are deferring decisions until the final tariff structure becomes clear. Without certainty, long-term planning is impossible,” he said.<\/p>\n
SM Khaled, managing director of Snowtex Group, echoed the concern. “Our current order book is secured until June, but there is deep uncertainty about what happens after the five-month window,” he said.<\/p>\n
For Khaled, whose annual exports exceed $200 million, the US accounts for 20% of total trade. The present volatility, he added, has created a procurement stalemate, with buyers reluctant to commit beyond immediate needs.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Hatem, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, described the situation as “unpredictable”.<\/p>\n
“Buyers are in the dark about where the tariff rates will finally land,” he said. According to him, customers are placing only minimum-volume orders, a conservative approach that could severely hurt Bangladesh’s garment exports if prolonged.<\/p>\n
Policy volatility weighs on trade<\/p>\n
Economists say the stop-start nature of US trade policy is amplifying risk.<\/p>\n
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, pointed to the legal oscillation shaping US tariff measures.<\/p>\n
“The Supreme Court struck down the initial reciprocal tariffs, but the administration quickly introduced new ones under different statutes,” he noted.<\/p>\n
Because President Trump retains the authority to impose targeted or “surgical” tariffs on specific products or countries, Mustafizur warned that buyers are operating in a vacuum of uncertainty\u2014booking orders only when unavoidable.<\/p>\n
The US remains Bangladesh’s largest apparel market, absorbing around 20% of total garment exports.<\/p>\n
Data from the US-based Office of Textiles and Apparel (Otexa) show that US imports from Bangladesh reached $8.18 billion in 2025, accounting for 11% of total US global apparel sourcing.<\/p>\n
In April 2025, the Trump administration initially set a 37% reciprocal tariff on Bangladesh, later negotiated down to 20% by August. Exporters now fear that a uniform 15% tariff applied equally to all countries would wipe out Bangladesh’s relative advantage.<\/p>\n
“The earlier tariff structure gave us a head start over China and India,” Khaled said. “We captured orders shifting out of China because of higher costs there. With a flat tariff, that incentive disappears.”<\/p>\n
Otexa data show that between January and November 2025, Chinese garment exports to the US fell 34%, while Bangladesh’s shipments grew 12%, alongside gains by several other major apparel exporters.<\/p>\n
A level tariff regime, exporters argue, could reverse that trend by intensifying competition.<\/p>\n
Buying houses squeezed as buyers seek discounts<\/p>\n
The reduction from 20% to 15% has sparked immediate renegotiation attempts.<\/p>\n
The Business Standard has seen an email from a mid-sized US buyer requesting a 2% downward adjustment on already-placed orders that have yet to clear customs.<\/p>\n
“Please note due to recent tariff changes, Charles is requiring a 2% adjustment to the DDP cost for any goods that have not cleared customs,” the message reads, instructing compliance by close of business Monday (US time).<\/p>\n
A senior official at a Dhaka-based buying house, speaking anonymously, said the burden of adjustment would fall on intermediaries.<\/p>\n
“We cannot push manufacturers for further discounts. We have to absorb the cuts ourselves,” he said. For his firm, which sends 90% of its shipments to the US, the financial exposure is significant.<\/p>\n
Other agents said the weekend timing of Washington’s tariff shift left them scrambling as the US business week began, anticipating further renegotiation requests.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Hatem warned that more buyers are likely to follow suit.<\/p>\n
Yet exporters argue that the 5 percentage-point tariff reduction should not be captured entirely by retailers. They say manufacturers had already slashed prices during the higher-tariff period to keep orders flowing and deserve to share in the benefit.<\/p>\n
Shovon Islam said his group plans to seek a 1% share of the savings from buyers.<\/p>\n
Khaled, however, struck a more sceptical tone. “The buyers are pocketing the entire benefit of the lower rates without offering us any concessions,” he said.<\/p>\n
For now, Bangladesh’s garment sector finds itself caught between policy unpredictability in Washington and pricing pressure from its largest export market\u2014waiting for clarity that may not come soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beyond the freeze in new orders, the tariff\u2014imposed by President Donald Trump after the US Supreme Court scrapped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-501875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/rmg_reuters_2.jpg\" "\\"\\"\/")
<\/p>\n