Clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh for French brands

Import duty and 20% TVA on clothing from Bangladesh in France

France applies the EU’s customs rules, so a garment made in Bangladesh enters at 0% duty under Everything But Arms when the exporter’s statement on origin is valid. TARIC, the EU’s tariff database, checked on 25 September 2026, gives 0% for Bangladesh and a third-country rate of 12% on a women’s knitted cotton pullover (6110 20 99 00). Duty is charged on the customs value, which French customs builds from the price paid plus the transport, insurance, handling and loading costs up to the place where the goods enter the EU customs territory, such as Le Havre or Fos. How the origin statement works, what may change after the transition ends, and the monthly exchange rate customs applies to a US dollar invoice are on our guide for EU brands.

What France sets is the import VAT, the TVA. Article 278 of the Code général des impôts fixes the standard rate at 20%, and clothing has no reduced rate, children’s clothing included. Article 292 builds the base: the customs value, plus any duty and other charges due on import, plus ancillary costs such as commission, packing, transport and insurance up to the first place of destination named on the transport document, and on to another destination in the EU if that place is known when the tax falls due.

Since 1 January 2022 an importer with a French VAT number no longer pays TVA to customs. It declares the import TVA on its own VAT return, the CA3, where it is collected and deducted on the same form; the reverse charge is automatic and mandatory, with no authorisation to apply for, and the tax office (DGFiP) manages it rather than customs. The return is pre-filled on the 14th of the month with the bases declared to customs and is due on the 24th. Two conditions: the French VAT number must be on the import declaration, and your company must be the importer of record, so agree who imports before you choose FOB, CIF or DDP. A business that has no French VAT number cannot pay at the port instead: it must obtain a French intra-EU VAT number from the tax office before it imports, and then declares the TVA on its own return. A start-up under the franchise en base registers in the same way and declares and pays the TVA on its return without deducting it. Only private individuals and public bodies not identified for VAT still pay customs at clearance.

Landed cost of a pullover from Bangladesh in France per piece: 0% or 12% duty

Take one women’s knitted cotton pullover, commodity code 6110 20 99 00, landed at Le Havre. The goods value is an illustrative round number, US$12.00 a piece, not a quote and not our price, converted into €10.56 at the European Central Bank’s euro reference rate of US$1.1367 on 24 September 2026. Sea freight and insurance to Le Havre are an assumption of €0.45 a piece. TARIC, checked on 25 September 2026, gives this code 0% for Bangladesh under Everything But Arms and a 12% third-country duty, which is what the same pullover would pay if Bangladesh had no preference once the transition ends, no earlier than about November 2032.

On 1,000 pieces, a valid statement on origin saves €1,320.83 of duty. An importer with a French VAT number reverse-charges the TVA on its CA3 return, so its cost at the quay is the customs value plus duty: €11.01 a piece at 0% and €12.33 at 12%. A business that cannot deduct TVA, such as one under the franchise en base, pays €13.21 and €14.79, and the post-transition gap for it widens to €1,584.99 on the order.

The table ends on the quay at Le Havre. The customs broker’s fee, terminal charges and the truck to your warehouse come on top, and under article 292 the transport to the first place of destination in France also goes into the TVA base. Customs converts a US dollar invoice at its own monthly rate, not the daily rate used here, so a real declaration will differ slightly. Our landed cost calculator adds freight, insurance, duty and clearance to your own price per piece, leaving TVA out; ask your broker to confirm the final numbers.

Shipping clothing from Bangladesh to Le Havre or Marseille-Fos

HAROPA PORT, which groups Le Havre, Rouen and Paris, handled 84.7 million tonnes in 2025 and a record 3.2 million TEU of containers, up 4%, according to its results published on 21 January 2026; Le Havre is the deep-sea port of the three. The port of Marseille Fos, whose container terminals are at Fos-sur-Mer, handled 74 million tonnes in 2025, up 5%, and 1.45 million TEU, level with 2024, according to its results published on 20 January 2026. For a ship from Chattogram through the Suez Canal, Fos is the first French port on the route and Le Havre the last, so the right one depends on where your warehouse is and on the road or rail leg from the quay. Suez sailing times to Europe and the causes of delay before loading and after discharge are on our shipping page.

Goods for France also land at Antwerp or Rotterdam and continue by road. The customs value then ends at that Belgian or Dutch port, as the EU guide explains, and if the goods are cleared there Eurostat records them as an arrival from Belgium or the Netherlands rather than as a French import from Bangladesh, which is why the shares below count only goods cleared in France. Agree the port and the place of clearance with your forwarder before the first booking.

Bangladesh’s share of France’s clothing imports: Eurostat figures

France imported €24.35 billion of clothing (HS chapters 61 and 62) in 2025, according to Eurostat’s Comext database, published on 15 September 2026. China supplied €3.85 billion, 15.8% of the total, and Bangladesh €2.14 billion, 8.8%, up 3.3% on 2024. Tunisia, India, Türkiye, Vietnam and Morocco followed, each at 2% to 3%. Counting only imports from outside the EU, which Eurostat records by country of origin, Bangladesh’s share was 18.9%, second to China at 33.9%.

Bangladesh leads in basics: in 2025 it supplied 46.5% of France’s non-EU imports of cotton T-shirts (6109 10), 37.9% of cotton jumpers and sweatshirts (6110 20), 37.4% of men’s cotton trousers and shorts (6203 42), the heading that includes jeans, and 28.7% of knitted cotton babywear (6111 20), where China is just ahead at 29.8%. More than half of France’s clothing imports, €12.99 billion, came from other EU member states; Eurostat records those by the country they were sent from, so the figure includes garments made in Asia and cleared elsewhere in the Union.

The 2026 trend is down. Provisional monthly figures for January to June 2026 show French clothing imports from outside the EU 9.9% lower than a year earlier and those from Bangladesh 19.1% lower, measured in euros; imports from China fell 3.8%. Seen from Bangladesh, France bought US$1.97 billion of clothing in FY2025–26 (July 2025 to June 2026), 8.74% less than the year before, on Export Promotion Bureau figures published by BGMEA. Eurostat counts calendar-year euros at the French border and the EPB counts fiscal-year dollars leaving Chattogram, so read the direction of each series rather than the gap between them.

The AGEC law: Triman and info-tri

Under France’s anti-waste law (loi AGEC), textiles sold in France must carry the Triman logo together with info-tri sorting information that tells the consumer what to do with the garment at end of life. It has been mandatory for textiles since 1 February 2023 and applies to most clothing, footwear and household linen.

The marking can go on the product label, the packaging or, in some cases, the digital product sheet. Decide which at sampling: adding a second label later means new label approvals and another lead time.

The same law bans the terms “biodégradable” and “respectueux de l’environnement” (environmentally friendly), and any equivalent wording, on a product or packaging placed on the French market; the environment ministry’s guidance says the ban has been in force since 1 January 2023.

Refashion: the eco-contribution per garment in 2026

The company that first places clothing on the French market, whether importer, brand or distance seller, is the metteur en marché: it joins Refashion, the eco-organisation for clothing, household linen and footwear, declares the quantities it places on the market and pays an eco-contribution per item.

Refashion’s detailed scale for 2026 prices each item by product line and wearer, and includes the repair and reuse funds. A T-shirt costs €0.0214 for a child, €0.0323 for a woman and €0.0396 for a man; a pullover €0.0614 for a woman and €0.0844 for a man; jeans €0.0831 for a woman and €0.1098 for a man; small babywear pieces €0.0239; women’s underwear bottoms €0.0190 and lingerie €0.0202; socks and hosiery €0.0214. Eco-modulations add bonuses for products that meet the eco-design criteria and penalties for components that hinder recycling, and from 1 September 2026 the ultra-express fashion penalty described below sits on top.

A marketer placing fewer than 5,000 pieces a year on the market, with no eco-modulated products, may use the simplified declaration instead: quantities by product family at a higher flat rate, €0.5799 per clothing item in 2026, which Refashion says covers the absence of traceability. On 1,000 women’s T-shirts that is €579.90 against €32.30 on the detailed scale, so the detailed declaration pays for itself as soon as you hold the product data. Ask for fibre composition, garment weight and units per style on the packing list of every order, so the declaration is built from production records.

Unsold stock and product environmental information under the AGEC law

Since 1 January 2022, article L541-15-8 of the Code de l’environnement has required producers, importers and distributors of new non-food products to reuse, redistribute or recycle their unsold goods instead of destroying them, with donation of essentials to approved charities named first; textiles were in the first group covered because they already fell under producer responsibility. The administrative fine is up to €3,000 for an individual and €15,000 for a company. End-of-season stock therefore needs a second life planned before it exists: order quantities per style and colour with that in mind, and keep the donation or recycling record with the season’s file.

Décret no. 2022-748 of 29 April 2022 sets out what a company must tell consumers about the environmental qualities of textiles: recycled content, recyclability, the presence of hazardous substances, the statement that a garment “rejette des microfibres plastiques dans l’environnement lors du lavage” when synthetic fibres exceed 50% of its mass, and traceability, meaning the country where the weaving, the dyeing and printing, and the making-up mainly take place. The information is given in dematerialised form, free of charge and accessible at the moment of purchase, in practice on the product page. Since 1 January 2025 it applies to producers and importers with a turnover above €10 million that place at least 10,000 units a year on the French market, after thresholds of €50 million and 25,000 units in 2023 and €20 million and 10,000 units in 2024.

A smaller brand is below the threshold, but a French retailer that is above it will ask you for the same data. The factory we name before production gives you the country of making-up; ask for the mill and the dyehouse country on the quote, and keep both with the order file, so the answer to a product-page question is a document rather than a guess.

Labels for the French market: French wording under the loi Toubon

Fibre names and percentages follow the EU textile labelling regulation, covered on our EU guide. France requires them in French through the loi Toubon, law no. 94-665 of 4 August 1994: article 2 makes French compulsory in the designation, presentation, instructions for use and guarantee terms of any product, invoices included. Article 4 allows translations alongside the French, provided the French version is as clear and legible, which is how one multilingual label can serve several EU markets.

The Triman logo and info-tri go with the composition label or on the packaging, as the section above explains, and the EU importer contact and product identifier required by the General Product Safety Regulation are on our EU guide. Fix the French wording at sampling: you approve it on the pre-production sample, and the bulk fabric test against your swatch confirms the composition it states before cutting starts.

• Fibre composition in French, with EU fibre names and percentages
• Other languages next to the French, never instead of it
• Triman logo and info-tri sorting information
• Care symbols and EU size
• Importer name and contact details

The environmental cost display (coût environnemental): voluntary since 1 October 2025

France’s Climate and Resilience law of 2021 created an environmental display for products. For clothing, décret no. 2025-957 and an arrêté of 6 September 2025 set the method and the label, both in force since 1 October 2025. The display is voluntary: a company that chooses to show the environmental cost of a new garment must calculate it with the official method on the state’s Ecobalyse portal, declare the product data there before it communicates anything, and show the words “Coût environnemental” with a score in impact points and the points per 100 g, accessible at the moment of purchase and, in store, in a type size at least that of the price. The method is a life-cycle assessment built on the EU’s product environmental footprint, with a durability factor and microfibre emissions added, and it covers most garment types, among them T-shirts and polos, pullovers, shirts, jeans, trousers, shorts, skirts, dresses, jackets, coats, swimwear, socks and boxers.

The law of 8 July 2026 on ultra-express fashion did not make the display compulsory, and the ministry’s page, updated in March 2026, still describes it as voluntary. Nothing changes for an importer that does not opt in. If you do, the score depends on the garment’s composition, weight and production steps, so the fibre content, the garment weight and the countries of the main stages belong on the quote and the packing list from the first order.

The 2026 law on ultra-express fashion

France adopted a law against ultra-fast fashion on 29 June 2026, promulgated as law no. 2026-602 on 8 July 2026. It defines ultra-express fashion as a business model that shortens product life through a very high number of new references combined with weak incentives to repair, with the thresholds set by decree. Companies caught by the definition pay a penalty through the textile eco-contribution, set by decree within a range of €0.25 to €12 per item in 2026 and rising each year to €2 to €20 per item from 2030, capped at half the product’s pre-tax price, with the penalty system applying from 1 September 2026. Advertising for ultra-express fashion, including by influencers, is banned from 1 January 2027, and online sellers must display where a product was made next to its price.

A brand with a stable range and a small number of references is not the target of the law. Two parts still touch you: the eco-contribution can be modulated up or down on any product according to its environmental profile, which rewards durable construction, and the country of production will be visible to French shoppers online, which is a reason to be able to say clearly who made your garment and under which audit.

For start-ups and small brands in France: 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 factory and priced separately by it.

Three French rules touch a small brand from the first garment. TVA: a start-up under the franchise en base, the VAT exemption for businesses selling less than €85,000 of goods a year, still owes import TVA and must obtain a VAT number to declare and pay it, but cannot deduct it, so the 20% is a real cost until the business leaves the franchise; the landed-cost table above shows both cases. Refashion: the eco-contribution is due from the first item placed on the market, and below 5,000 pieces a year the simplified declaration costs €0.5799 per garment in 2026. Unsold stock: the ban on destroying it applies to every producer, whatever its size. 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
• French VAT number, Refashion membership and a plan for unsold stock before the first season

Working with us from France

Bangladesh is four hours ahead of France in summer and five in winter. France was Bangladesh’s fourth-largest EU customer for clothing in FY2025–26, at US$1.97 billion, and Bangladeshi factories make for French retailers, so the French fibre label, the Triman and info-tri marking and EU sizing are routine on the pre-production sample.

• Factory named before production, with its address, audit report and Accord status
• Triman logo and info-tri placement agreed at sampling, on the label or the packaging
• French fibre-composition label and importer details approved on the pre-production sample
• The Refashion declaration, which is the French importer’s to make, not the factory’s
• Quality checks on the line and the AQL final inspection report, then invoice, packing list, transport document and origin statement