Clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh for European brands

Duty: Everything But Arms, and what happens after the transition

Everything But Arms removes tariffs and quotas on all goods except arms from Least Developed Countries, and Bangladeshi garments use it to enter the EU duty-free. Exporters registered in the EU’s REX system state origin on the commercial documents, and under EBA a garment can qualify when it is cut and sewn from imported fabric.

Bangladesh is scheduled to graduate from LDC status on 24 November 2029, after the UN General Assembly extended its preparatory period by three years on 29 October 2026. EBA continues through a three-year transition, to about November 2032. The European Commission’s statement, made before the extension, that Bangladesh keeps EBA at least until the end of 2029 is now a floor, and the Commission had not published a new date when we checked on 31 October 2026. After that, Bangladesh would need GSP+ or a trade agreement to keep reduced duties. Without either, garments would pay the EU’s third-country duty: 12% on most garment codes, as the table below shows.

The rulebook for that decision is now fixed. The new GSP Regulation (EU) 2026/1395 was adopted by the European Parliament on 28 April 2026, published in the Official Journal on 22 June 2026, and applies from 1 January 2027 until the end of 2036. It keeps the three-year EBA transition after graduation and removes the import-share test from the GSP+ vulnerability criteria, which had been the main obstacle to Bangladesh qualifying. It also lowers the line for clothing, GSP section S-11b (chapters 61 to 63), from the 47.2% of the 2012 Regulation to 37% of EU imports of those products from all beneficiary countries. Above it, Article 8 suspends standard GSP on the section for a country whose share averages more than 37% over three years, and under Article 33 the Commission must each year remove standard GSP and GSP+ preferences on it for a country above 37% in a calendar year, unless its share of total EU imports of those products is 6% or less. On Eurostat figures, Bangladesh supplied about 49% of the EU’s section S-11b imports from the countries the Regulation lists as beneficiaries in 2023–2025 (€56.3 billion of €114.8 billion, and 48.8% in 2025 alone; our calculation), and its share of all EU imports of the same products (chapters 61 to 63) from outside the EU, 18.5% in 2025 on Eurostat figures, is far above the 6% exemption. On today’s trade, then, neither standard GSP nor GSP+ would keep garments below the full duty, even though GSP+ removes duty on apparel for countries under the line and the import-share test that used to bar Bangladesh from it is gone. The Commission applies the test to the figures of the time, so the routes that would keep garments duty-free after the transition are a bilateral agreement, or GSP+ with a share below 37%. Model your margin at both duty levels now.

The duty rates behind the post-transition fallback, code by code

If Bangladesh leaves Everything But Arms without GSP+ or a trade agreement, its garments would pay the EU’s third-country rate, the duty charged when no preference applies. TARIC, checked for imports from Bangladesh on 23 September 2026, shows 0% under Everything But Arms today on all nine codes below, and a third-country rate of 12% on eight of them; bras are the exception at 6.5%. The code, and so the rate, depends on fibre, construction and whether the garment is for men or women, so check each of your own codes with your customs broker.

Labelling your garments for the EU

Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 requires textile products sold in the EU to show fibre composition using the harmonised fibre names, in the language of the country where they are sold. Care labelling is not harmonised across the EU, but it is expected by retailers and required in practice by most marketplaces.

• Fibre composition using EU fibre names, in the local language
• Your name and contact details as the EU importer or brand (GPSR)
• A batch, style or other identifier for traceability (GPSR)
• Care instructions to your retailer’s specification

Product safety and chemicals: GPSR, EN 14682 drawstrings and REACH azo dyes

Since 13 December 2024 the General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 has applied to clothing: products must be safe, identifiable and traceable, and the economic operator in the EU must be named on the product or packaging.

For childrenswear, the standard to design to is EN 14682:2014 on cords and drawstrings. It covers children’s clothing up to the age of 14, including costumes and ski wear, but not footwear, hats, gloves or scarves. The Commission decided in 2015 to publish its reference in the Official Journal under the old product safety directive, and the recitals of the General Product Safety Regulation say standards published that way should continue to give a presumption of conformity with its safety requirement. The rules on cords are enforced: when market surveillance authorities in 11 member states checked children’s clothing between November 2008 and February 2010, they filed more than 400 alerts on garments that did not meet EN 14682:2007, the edition current at the time. Check every cord, drawstring and toggle on the pre-production sample of each childrenswear style.

Chemicals are restricted under REACH Annex XVII. Entry 43 bans azo dyes that can release any of the listed aromatic amines above 30 mg/kg (0.003% by weight) in textile articles that may come into direct and prolonged contact with the skin, clothing included, and bans placing such articles on the market. The azo dyes in a separate list may not be used above 0.1% in a substance or mixture intended for colouring textiles. Nickel release from metal trims is restricted too. A brand may ask for a test report on azo amines for each dyed fabric as its evidence. Separately, bulk fabric is tested against the approved swatch before cutting.

Green claims: the EU rules that apply from 27 September 2026

Every member state must apply Directive (EU) 2024/825, on empowering consumers for the green transition, from 27 September 2026, and it changes what a label, swing tag or product page may say. It adds new entries to the EU list of commercial practices that are unfair in all circumstances, and three matter most for clothing: a generic environmental claim such as “eco-friendly” unless the trader can show recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim; a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or set by public authorities; and a claim that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive climate impact because emissions were offset.

For a clothing brand the fix is wording that names something you can document: the fibre, its percentage and the certificate behind it, and a label only where a certification scheme stands behind it. Our sustainable and organic production page explains what each claim needs. Some member states go further: France already bans “biodégradable” and “respectueux de l’environnement” on products and packaging under its anti-waste law, as our France page explains.

National rules on top of the EU rules

EU duty and fibre labelling rules are the same everywhere, but member states add their own requirements. Germany has supply chain due diligence and packaging registration; France requires the Triman sorting mark and an eco-contribution to Refashion; the Netherlands has run textile extended producer responsibility since 2023, and Spain’s scheme is close behind. Directive (EU) 2025/1892 now requires textile EPR in every member state, so expect the same duties wherever you sell.

Shipping and landed cost

Most EU orders ship by sea from Chattogram to northern European ports, with air freight for urgent drops. Ask for FOB and DDP quotes side by side: FOB suits brands with a forwarder, while DDP gives smaller brands one landed price.

How long the sea leg takes: on 17 October 2026 we read Fluent Cargo’s route pages, which compile carriers’ published sailing schedules, for the quickest scheduled sailing from Chattogram to the main EU ports. Each changed ship once on the way; the pages do not say where. Genoa was quickest at 33 days 2 hours, then Rotterdam at 35 days 15 hours, Hamburg 37 days 20 hours, Antwerp-Bruges 39 days 11 hours and Le Havre 41 days 18 hours. These are the fastest scheduled sailings, not the usual one and not a promise: a slower service or a missed connection adds days, and the time to the Chattogram cut-off and from the terminal to your warehouse comes on top. Since late 2023 most container lines have sent their Europe services around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid attacks in the Red Sea. In September 2026 Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd moved more Asia–Europe and India–Europe services back to the Suez Canal, on condition that the Red Sea stays stable, and in the first two weeks of October 2026 BIMCO put container ship capacity through the canal at just over half its level in the same weeks of 2023. A booking can change route, and transit time, between quote and sailing. By air, SEKO Logistics estimates 2 to 5 days from Dhaka to Europe.

If you sell direct to consumers and post parcels from Bangladesh, note that the EU removed the duty exemption for consignments worth up to €150 on 1 July 2026. Until 1 July 2028, Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 charges a temporary €3 customs duty per item, which the Commission’s guidance counts per tariff line in the customs declaration rather than per piece. It applies to every such parcel whose VAT is collected through the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), even though Everything But Arms would give 0%, and to postal parcels outside IOSS unless the preference is claimed. Only a parcel declared on a full (H1) customs declaration outside IOSS can claim it; confirm the route with your customs broker. A Union handling fee of €2 per item has also applied since 1 November 2026 to goods sold at a distance from outside the EU, whatever their value and even when a preference is claimed; Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152, published in the Official Journal on 22 October 2026, sets the amount.

Customs value and the exchange rate

Duty is charged on the customs value: the price paid for the garments plus the transport, insurance, loading and handling costs up to the place where the goods enter the EU customs territory, which for sea freight is the first EU port the goods reach. Transport inside the EU stays out, and on an FOB purchase your freight and insurance to that port are added to the invoice price.

An invoice in US dollars is converted at a monthly customs rate: in euro countries, the European Central Bank rate published on the second-last Wednesday of the month before, applied for the whole month. Import VAT is set by each country and charged on top.

Before the first shipment: EORI, the exporter’s REX number and a customs representative

Every customs declaration in the EU needs an EORI number, the trader identifier used across all member states. A business established in the EU gets it from the customs authority of its own country. A business outside the EU gets it from the member state where it lodges its first declaration or applies for its first customs decision. A person holds only one valid EORI number at a time, it does not expire, and anyone can check a number on the Commission’s EORI validation page.

Duty-free entry under Everything But Arms rests on a statement on origin made out by the exporter in Bangladesh. When the originating goods in a consignment are worth more than €6,000, the exporter must be registered in the REX system, the declarant must quote the REX number in the import declaration, and the EU’s customs implementing rules require the declarant to check on the public REX website that the exporter is registered before claiming the preference. At or below €6,000, any exporter may make out the statement. The Commission’s REX validation page confirms a number even when the exporter chose not to publish its full details, so check it on the draft invoice before the goods sail.

The declarant must normally be established in the EU, and so must a customs representative. Under direct representation, the representative acts in your name and on your behalf, so you are the declarant, which normally requires your company to be established in the EU. Under indirect representation, it acts in its own name on your behalf, which is the route for a brand based outside the EU unless an EU company buys and imports the goods itself; both of you are then liable for the customs debt, including any duty claimed later if the preference is refused. Agree which form applies, and who is named as importer, before the first shipment.

Textile producer responsibility becomes mandatory EU-wide

This is the change to plan for. The revised Waste Framework Directive, Directive (EU) 2025/1892, entered into force on 16 October 2025 and makes extended producer responsibility for textiles and footwear mandatory in every member state. Member states have 20 months to write it into national law and 30 months to have the schemes running, so the obligations land in 2027 and 2028.

Under those schemes, producers pay a fee for every product they place on the market, and the fee is eco-modulated: adjusted against sustainability criteria such as durability and recyclability. In plain terms, the same garment will cost more to sell in the EU if it is designed to be thrown away, and the brands that already record fibre composition and garment weight per style will find compliance a reporting exercise rather than a project.

France, the Netherlands and Hungary already run national textile schemes, and our Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and Denmark pages track where each country’s plans stand. Ask for fibre composition and weight per style on the packing list of every order, because that is the data these schemes report on and it costs nothing to collect during production.

The new EU packaging rules already apply

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, has applied since 12 August 2026, replacing the 1994 packaging directive with one directly applicable rulebook for all packaging placed on the EU market. For a clothing brand that means polybags, hang tags, tissue, cartons and mailing bags, not just the garment.

The obligations arrive in stages. Restrictions on PFAS in food-contact packaging applied immediately, a harmonised packaging labelling system follows from 2028, and from 2030 come limits on empty space, restrictions on certain single-use plastic packaging, reuse targets, mandatory recycled content in new plastic packaging, and a requirement that all packaging be recyclable.

Nothing here demands panic this season, and all of it rewards decisions taken at sampling rather than after the first shipment: right-sized cartons, recycled-content polybags, paper tags without plastic fixings, and the weight of each packaging component per style on the packing list. We quote those alternatives during development, because changing packaging later means changing artwork, cost and often the carton plan.

Bangladesh in the EU’s clothing imports

Counting only imports from outside the EU, the EU imported US$101.7 billion of clothing (HS chapters 61 and 62) in 2025, according to UN Comtrade. China supplied US$30.0 billion, 29.5%; Bangladesh US$21.9 billion, 21.6%, second; Türkiye US$9.4 billion, 9.3%. Trade between member states is left out, because it would count the same garment again when it moves from one EU warehouse to another. Seen from Bangladesh the relationship is even larger: the EU took US$19.06 billion of the country’s garment exports in FY2025–26, 49.25% of the total and 3.31% less than the year before. The practical meaning for a European brand is that Bangladeshi factories make to EU retailers’ specifications every day, and a European testing manual, fibre label or packaging rule is familiar rather than foreign.

Ecodesign rules and the digital product passport

On 16 April 2025 the European Commission adopted its ecodesign working plan for 2025 to 2030 under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, in force since 18 July 2024, and named textiles and apparel as the first product group to receive requirements. The delegated act for textiles is expected in 2027, with the requirements applying from about 2028, and every product it covers will carry a digital product passport holding the information the act specifies. The regulation also bans the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear, phased in by company size.

The data a passport will need is the data the national EPR schemes already ask for: fibre composition, weight, construction, the factory and the fabric source. Ask for all of it per style with every order today, so you are collecting nothing twice when the passport arrives.

EU rules reaching clothing importers from 2026 to 2030, by date

Most rules on this page have their own section; the table puts them on one timeline so a sourcing team can see what lands in which season. Every date comes from the Official Journal text of the act, read on 2 November 2026. Duty is left out, because Everything But Arms and its transition to about November 2032 are covered at the top of this page.

Three entries are recent. The Union handling fee of €2 per item on distance sales was fixed by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152, published on 22 October 2026, and has applied since 1 November 2026. Limits on PFHxA, one of the PFAS chemicals, have applied to clothing for the general public since 10 October 2026, measured in each homogeneous material of the garment; goods already placed on the market before that date are exempt. And Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 of 16 September 2026 sets out a new Union Customs Code, which replaces the 2013 code from 21 September 2027, with some parts from 1 July 2028.

The forced labour ban is the row with the widest reach. From 14 December 2027, Regulation (EU) 2024/3015 bars any company, with no size threshold, from placing or making available on the EU market, or exporting, products made with forced labour at any stage of their supply chain, and an offer aimed at EU customers online counts. It works differently from the US approach: there is no presumption tied to one region, the authority first asks the companies concerned what they have done to identify and end forced labour risks, and only a decision after an investigation bans the product, orders it withdrawn and disposed of, and lets customs stop it at the border. The documents that answer a US detention, the cotton origin, the yarn and fabric invoices and the production records tied to your order, answer this too, so collect them once.

For start-ups and small brands in the EU: minimums and the first order

Our own orders start at 500 pieces per style and colour, which is also the minimum for T-shirts and hoodies. Denim, jackets, woven shirts, workwear and uniforms start at 2,000; underwear at 5,000 pieces and socks at 5,000 pairs; for every other category the exact minimum is confirmed on your quote. Orders below 500 pieces go through the small-run route on our low MOQ page, made by our sister company, Collective Studio Ltd., which prices them separately.

Clothing from Bangladesh enters every EU member state at 0% under Everything But Arms with a REX statement on origin, and that continues through the transition, to about November 2032; import VAT is charged at the member state’s rate and recovered by a VAT-registered importer. Under the General Product Safety Regulation an EU-established economic operator must be named on the product, so a small brand outside the EU needs one before the first shipment. A first order needs a tech pack or a reference garment, a target quantity per style and colour, your market and the label wording you need. The quote states the shipping term (FOB, CIF or DDP) and your category minimum in writing, you approve a sample before bulk, and the factory that will make your order is named to you before production, with its address, certificates and audit reports.

• Minimum: 500 pieces per style and colour, higher in some categories
• The quote states the shipping term and your category minimum in writing
• Sample approved before bulk; factory named before production, with its documents

Working with us from the EU

Bangladesh is four hours ahead of Central European Time in summer and five in winter, so a brief sent before your lunch reaches us in our afternoon and a question sent at the end of your day is on our desk first thing; we reply within one working day. We quote in US dollars. We ship FOB, CIF or DDP from Chattogram sea port or Dhaka airport, with the REX statement on origin from the exporter so your goods clear duty-free under Everything But Arms. Our country pages for Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy carry each market’s national rules; this page carries what is the same everywhere.

• Factory named before production, with its address, audit report and Accord status
• REX statement on origin on the commercial invoice for duty-free entry
• Local-language fibre label and EU importer details approved on the pre-production sample
• Fibre composition, garment weight and packaging weights per style: ask for them on the packing list for EPR reporting
• Quality checks on the line and the AQL final inspection report, then invoice, packing list, transport document and origin statement