Bangladesh’s apparel exports to USA – one of its major export destinations – in the first 6 months of 2020 declined by nearly 20 per cent to US $ 2.47 billion, as per media reports, which cited figures released by the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA), recently.
As per the OTEXA data, during the January-June period of 2020, Bangladesh’s earnings from apparel exports to the USA witnessed 19.73 per cent fall to US $ 2.47 billion, compared to what was US $ 3.07 billion in the same period, in the previous year.
Many of Bangladesh’s competitors and apparel exporting countries also witnessed decline in the US market in the same period with Vietnam reportedly witnessing around 11.12 per cent decline to US $ 5.65 billion, India registering decline of 32.09 per cent to US $ 1.53 billion, Pakistan 17.27 per cent to US $ 585 million, Indonesia 20.33 per cent to US $ 1.81 billion, Mexico 37.21 per cent to US $ 1 billion and Sri Lanka 23.56 per cent to US $ 693 million.
As per the report, China, in particular, witnessed a massive 49 per cent decline to US $ 5.76 billion in the first half of the year whereas unlike many other countries, Cambodia posted a gain of 3.44 per cent to US $ 1.25 billion from apparel exports to USA, which in the corresponding period of last year stood at US $ 1.20 billion.
