According to the Pew Research Center, Bangladeshi exporters are the highest tariff payers among the 232 exporting nations to the US as the North American country imposes substantial import taxes on apparel and footwear. Pew Research Center found that Bangladesh and Vietnam export large volumes of clothes and shoes to the US, and those are the items for which the US imposes taxes at disproportionately high rates. In 2017, Bangladesh’s exports to the US totaled $5.7 bn, and 95 per cent of them were clothes, shoes, headgear, and related items.
According to the survey, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam, and other such nations face the highest import duties in absolute figures, because of their substantial trade in clothing and footwear. For Bangladesh, tariffs were 15.2 per cent of the value of all its shipments. Cambodia pays duties equal to 14.1 per cent of the total value export to the US while Sri Lanka pays 11.9 per cent, Pakistan 8.9 per cent, and Vietnam 7.2 per cent, according to the report.
However, the duties on Chinese imports totaled $13.5 bn last year, or 2.7 per cent of their total value. The ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China has led both countries to announce tariffs worth billions of dollars on each other’s products. According to ITC database, the reason for the high tariffs is protectionism. Big brands, retailers, and the groups that represent them, such as the footwear retailers and distributors of America have battled against these duties for some time. The USA is Bangladesh’s single largest export destination. About 20 per cent of Bangladesh’s export receipts come from the US.
The average American tariff for knitwear or crocheted clothing is 18.7 per cent and 15.8 per cent for non-knitted clothing, the two highest average rates out of 98 broad import categories. Footwear is close behind with the average tariff rate of 11.9 per cent.
