Even as countries in West are, reportedly, imposing various restrictions to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, apparel exporters in Bangladesh have expressed concerns about garment workers being pushed into a humanitarian crisis consequent to the ongoing lockdowns in the sourcing destinations even as garment units are running below the breakeven cost due to order scarcity.
This was underlined in recent media reports which maintained that in an open letter written to Governments of the USA, European Union and the UK, Mostafiz Uddin, who is the CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo and Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE), has, reportedly, stated that if fashion stores in the importing countries do not reopen for business immediately, hundreds of thousands people involved in the readymade garment industry might lose jobs, which would result in sharp rise in poverty while also imploring the trading partners to consider the lockdown’s impact on the millions of workers in their supply chains.
I am writing this open letter to flag certain aspects relating to Bangladesh and its trading partners in the UK, Europe and the US and beyond, reportedly, wrote Mostafiz in the letter while underlining that it (letter) is aimed at the Government ministers in the key trading partners of Bangladesh even as he went on to add, “We are all aware of the ways the coronavirus has significantly altered the trading landscape and consequently orders have inevitably been reduced to Asian garment manufacturing hubs…”
