Clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh for German brands

Import duty and 19% import VAT (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer) on clothing from Bangladesh

Germany 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 23 September 2026, gives 0% for Bangladesh and a third-country rate of 12% on a men’s knitted cotton hoodie (6110 20 91 00) and a cotton T-shirt (6109 10 00 10). How the origin statement works, and what could change after the transition, is in our guide for EU brands.

Duty is charged on the customs value, which EU rules build from the price paid plus freight and insurance to the first EU port the goods reach, such as Hamburg or Bremerhaven. How that value is worked out, and the monthly exchange rate customs uses for a US dollar invoice, is in our guide for EU brands. What Germany sets is the import VAT on top.

Import VAT is charged at the standard rate of 19%, which covers clothing, on the customs value plus any duty, plus the transport from the EU border to the first destination in the EU. A VAT-registered importer deducts it as input tax once it has arisen. With a customs deferment account, it falls due on the 26th of the second month after the month of import, which can mean the deduction comes before the payment. Confirm the set-up with your customs broker and your Steuerberater.

Landed cost of a hoodie from Bangladesh in Germany per piece: 0% or 12% duty

Take one men’s knitted cotton hoodie, commodity code 6110 20 91 00. The numbers are illustrative, not a quote and not our price: a goods value of US$10.00, converted into €8.72 at the European Central Bank reference rate of 22 September 2026 (US$1.1463 to the euro), and an assumed €0.40 per piece for sea freight and insurance to Hamburg. Customs uses its own monthly rate, so the euro figures on a real declaration will differ slightly.

On 1,000 pieces, a valid statement on origin saves €1,094.40 of duty. If Bangladesh lost the preference after the transition with nothing to replace it, the same order would cost €1,094.40 more at the port for an importer that deducts its import VAT, and €1,302.34 more for one that cannot, such as a business not registered for VAT in Germany.

These figures end at the quay in Hamburg. Your broker’s fee, terminal charges and the truck to your warehouse come on top, and the transport from the port to the first destination in the EU also goes into the value on which import VAT is charged. Our landed cost calculator adds freight, insurance, duty and clearance to your own price per piece, leaving import VAT out; ask your customs broker to confirm the final numbers.

Shipping clothing from Bangladesh to Hamburg or Bremerhaven

Hamburg and Bremerhaven are Germany’s two busiest seaports: Destatis counted 99.8 million tonnes of goods handled at Hamburg in 2025 and 46.9 million tonnes at Bremerhaven. Sea transit times from Chattogram, and what adds days on either side of the voyage, are on our page on shipping clothing from Bangladesh.

Goods for Germany can also land at Rotterdam or Antwerp and move on by road, rail or barge. Two things change. The freight counted in the customs value stops at the first EU port the goods reach. And if the goods are cleared through customs in the Netherlands or Belgium, the EU’s trade statistics record them as that country’s import and then as a delivery to Germany, which Destatis calls the Rotterdam effect and which is why the import figures below come in two versions. Agree the port and the place of clearance with your forwarder before the first booking.

Bangladesh’s share of Germany’s clothing imports: Eurostat and Destatis figures

Eurostat’s Comext database, which records Germany’s imports from outside the EU by country of origin, shows €20.46 billion of clothing (HS chapters 61 and 62) in 2025. China supplied 29.7%, Bangladesh 22.5%, Türkiye 12.0%, Pakistan 4.8%, India 4.7% and Vietnam 4.7%. Imports from Bangladesh rose 1.9% on 2024, while those from Türkiye fell 17.1%.

Bangladesh leads in basics: 51.3% of Germany’s non-EU imports of cotton T-shirts, 32.5% of cotton jumpers and sweatshirts, and 33.5% of men’s cotton trousers and shorts, the heading that includes jeans. Figures for January to June 2026, which are not yet final, show German clothing imports from outside the EU down 17.0% on a year earlier and those from Bangladesh down 26.6%, measured in euros. That is a steeper fall than the 11.50% drop in US dollars that the Export Promotion Bureau reports for Bangladesh’s FY2025–26 clothing exports to Germany; the periods and currencies differ.

Destatis, Germany’s statistics office, records imports by country of origin even when goods reach Germany through another EU country, so its national figures credit Bangladesh with more. Its latest release on clothing, for January to September 2023, put Bangladesh at €5.6 billion, or 20.3% of all German clothing imports, up from 12.1% in 2013, with China at 21.2% and Türkiye at 11.8%. Eurostat’s data for the same months gives Bangladesh €3.7 billion, or 11.3% of all German clothing imports, EU countries included.

LkSG: supply chain due diligence for large German buyers

The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz, or LkSG) applies to companies with their head office, registered seat or a branch in Germany and at least 1,000 employees there. They must analyse human-rights and environmental risks in their supply chains, take preventive and remedial measures, run a complaints procedure and document all of it. Smaller brands are not directly in scope, but their customers often are, so the questions flow down the chain.

The Act is being relaxed, but the change is not yet law. The federal cabinet approved a bill on 3 September 2025 that removes the annual report, retroactively, and drops nine of the 13 offences that can be fined; the Bundestag held its first reading on 16 January 2026, and its page on the bill still showed only that reading on 23 September 2026. The published Act still contains the reporting duty in section 10. BAFA, the enforcement authority, has stopped checking company reports and says it now fines only serious violations. The due-diligence duties themselves are unchanged, and the EU’s corporate sustainability due diligence directive is meant to replace the Act. In a paper published on 2 July 2026, the coalition committee agreed to transpose that directive one to one and to limit the scope by law in autumn 2026 to companies with at least 5,000 employees and more than €1.5 billion of worldwide annual net turnover; until such a law is passed, the 1,000-employee threshold in section 1 applies, as it still did on 17 October 2026.

In practice a German customer’s supplier questionnaire asks who made the goods, where, under which audit, and what happened when an audit found a problem. We name the factory in writing before production, with its address, certificates and audit reports. The documents to have ready are:

• Factory name, address and audit report for the site making your goods
• A written commitment that the order will not be subcontracted without your approval
• Corrective action reports where an audit found problems
• Fibre and yarn origin documents on cotton orders

Packaging: LUCID registration under the VerpackDG since 12 August 2026

On 12 August 2026 the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and Germany’s Packaging Law Implementation Act (Verpackungsrecht-Durchführungsgesetz, or VerpackDG), which the Bundestag passed on 11 June 2026, replaced the old Packaging Act. For packaging subject to system participation, the three basic duties stay: registration in the LUCID packaging register, system participation (a contract with a dual system that pays for collection and recycling) and reporting the volumes.

What changed is who carries them. For clothing made under your own brand, you are the packaging’s manufacturer under the EU regulation, and if you are the first company to make the goods available in Germany you are also the producer who registers, pays and reports. The duty cannot be passed to the factory or a contract packer, and your brand names go into the LUCID registration. The Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR), which runs LUCID, says there is no transition period and that companies which fail to adjust may face a ban on distribution.

If you sell from outside Germany straight to German customers, for example through your own online shop, you have had to appoint an authorised representative in Germany since 12 August 2026, while registering in LUCID stays your own task. The exception for micro-enterprises moves the duty to the supplier only when that supplier is in the same EU country, so it does not apply to goods ordered from Bangladesh.

Your dual system needs the weight and material of each packaging component, and the VerpackDG sets rules for participation fees to reward packaging that is easier to recycle. The polybags, hang tags and cartons chosen at sampling therefore set a cost you carry in Germany.

Textile EPR in Germany: the planned Textilgesetz

Germany has not yet passed its law on producer responsibility for textiles. On 27 March 2026 the Federal Environment Ministry published key points for a Textilgesetz covering clothing, clothing accessories, home textiles and shoes, and the law must be in force by 17 June 2027 to meet the EU deadline. We had not found a published draft bill when we checked on 17 October 2026, so the fees and the registration details are not yet known.

Under the key points, the producer is the first company to offer the textiles on the German market, whether maker, importer or distributor. It registers with the competent authority before selling, joins a producer responsibility organisation and pays for collection, sorting and recycling; in the minister’s words, the more textiles a producer sells and the lower their quality, the more it pays. A producer without a seat in Germany appoints an authorised representative, and online marketplaces and fulfilment services must check that the producer is registered.

Textile labelling in German: the Textilkennzeichnungsgesetz

Germany’s Textile Labelling Act (Textilkennzeichnungsgesetz) requires the fibre composition of every textile product sold in Germany to be given in German, using the EU fibre names. Other languages may be added. The same rule applies to products offered for sale online, so the German fibre names belong on your product pages as well as on the sewn-in label.

Manufacturers and importers must keep the documents behind the fibre label, such as the fabric test report, for two calendar years after the end of the year in which the last item was placed on the market, and a missing or wrong label can be fined up to €10,000. The Act covers fibre composition only; care symbols and sizes follow your retailer’s manual, and the importer’s details follow the EU rules on our EU page. The German fibre label is approved on the pre-production sample, and bulk fabric is tested against the approved swatch before cutting.

Working with us from Germany

Bangladesh is four hours ahead of Germany in summer and five in winter. Germany is the largest EU buyer of Bangladeshi clothing, at US$4.38 billion in FY2025–26, so Bangladeshi factories already make to German retailers’ specifications and testing manuals, and the German-language fibre label, EU sizing and importer details are routine on the pre-production sample.

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. Send your tech pack or brief with quantities per style and colour, and we reply within one working day. We ship FOB, CIF or DDP from Chattogram sea port or Dhaka airport; the quote states the shipping term and your category minimum in writing.

• Factory named before production, with its address, audit report and Accord status
• REX statement on origin on the commercial invoice for duty-free entry
• German fibre-composition label and importer details approved on the pre-production sample
• LUCID registration before the first shipment, which is yours to do, not the factory’s
• Quality checks on the line and the AQL final inspection report, which your compliance team can file