Clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh for US brands

The base duty, before any additional tariff

Bangladesh has no duty-free preference in the US: its benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences were suspended in 2013 and have not returned. Garments pay the general rate for their HTS code, and that rate swings widely with fibre and construction. Cotton is taxed less than polyester; knits and wovens differ; babies’ garments are cheaper again.

The rates below are the General (column 1) rates, read from the US International Trade Commission’s Harmonized Tariff Schedule (2026 Revision 21) on 17 October 2026. They are the starting point, not the total: any additional tariff in force is applied on top, and your exact statistical suffix depends on gender, fibre percentage and construction.

Additional tariffs in 2026

Additional tariffs have changed repeatedly. A 10% baseline tariff applied from 5 April 2025, and a 37% “reciprocal” rate for Bangladesh applied only to goods entered on 9 April 2025, because country rates were suspended from 12:01 a.m. on 10 April and a 10% rate applied instead; from 7 August 2025 the rate was 20%. On 20 February 2026 the US Supreme Court held that the law behind those tariffs, IEEPA, does not authorise tariffs, and an order of the same day ended them; a temporary 10% surcharge under Section 122 applied from 24 February to 23 July 2026. From 24 July 2026, goods of Bangladesh pay a 10% tariff under Section 301 of the Trade Act, set out in the US Trade Representative’s Federal Register notice of 28 July 2026; the Daily Star reports that this brings the typical total duty on Bangladeshi garments to about 25.62%. Our guide to US tariffs on clothing from Bangladesh sets out the rate by entry date and how refunds of the earlier tariffs are claimed.

How that compares with other origins: the same notice sets 12.5% for 38 other economies, including China, Vietnam and Türkiye, so a Bangladeshi garment pays 2.5 points less than a Vietnamese one on every line, since both pay the same base duty. Garments entered duty-free from Central America under CAFTA-DR, or from Canada and Mexico under the USMCA, pay less than either. The notice links Bangladesh’s lower rate to its commitment, in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade signed with the US on 9 February 2026, to prohibit imports of goods made with forced labour.

One part of the July 2026 notice is worth watching. The US Trade Representative said it will set up, when feasible, tariff-rate quotas for Bangladesh, with an initial duration of three years, that let a volume of specific textile and apparel goods, linked to Bangladesh’s imports of US cotton and textile inputs, enter free of the Section 301 tariff. The quotas are to be set out in a separate notice, and none had been published in the Federal Register when we checked on 17 October 2026. If your programme could use US cotton, ask us and your broker where the quotas stand on the day you order.

Two practical consequences follow. First, confirm the rate for your exact HTS codes with your customs broker before you fix retail prices; anything you read, including this page, is a snapshot. Second, build your margin model so it survives a five-point move, because the last two years say another change is more likely than not. The Section 301 tariff is itself being challenged at the US Court of International Trade (In re Section 301 Forced Labor Cases, No. 26-03555), which heard argument on 30 September 2026; no decision had been published when we checked on 17 October 2026, and the tariff still applies.

Duty and fees on one cotton T-shirt, worked through

The table follows one knitted cotton T-shirt, HTS 6109.10.00, entered by sea. The US$5.00 factory price is an illustration chosen to keep the arithmetic simple; it is not a CMB Sourcing price or quote. Each rate was checked on 17 October 2026: the duty in the US International Trade Commission’s tariff schedule (2026 Revision 21, in force since 9 October 2026), the additional tariff in the US Trade Representative’s Federal Register notice of 28 July 2026 and tariff heading 9903.05.26, and the fees in CBP’s user fee table and its Federal Register notice for the year from 1 October 2026.

US duty is charged on the customs value, which is normally the price paid to the seller, excluding international freight and insurance (19 CFR 152.102). Every percentage below therefore applies to the US$5.00, not to a price that includes shipping. Duty, tariff and fees add about US$1.35 to each shirt, 27% of the factory price, before freight or any other cost.

The merchandise processing fee is shown at its percentage rate, which applies once an entry is worth more than about US$9,980. Below that, the per-entry minimum applies: a 1,000-piece entry worth US$5,000 pays the US$34.58 minimum, about US$0.035 a piece, roughly twice the figure in the table. The US$34.58 minimum and US$670.86 maximum have applied since 1 October 2026 (US$33.58 and US$651.50 before); the 0.3464% rate did not change. The harbor maintenance fee applies to cargo unloaded from a commercial vessel at a US port, so an air shipment does not pay it.

The additional tariff could fall for some orders. In the same July 2026 notice, the US Trade Representative said it will set up, when feasible, tariff-rate quotas that would let a volume of Bangladeshi textiles and apparel, linked to Bangladesh’s imports of US cotton and textile inputs, enter free of the Section 301 tariff. No such quota appeared in the tariff schedule (2026 Revision 21) on 17 October 2026, so the table uses the full 10%.

The table leaves out costs that depend on your shipment rather than on the tariff schedule. The next section, The costs nobody quotes you, lists them; get quotes for your own volume and route.

The costs nobody quotes you

Duty is the big line, but it is not the only one. US Customs charges a merchandise processing fee on formal entries at 0.3464% of the goods value, with a minimum of $34.58 and a maximum of $670.86 per entry since 1 October 2026 ($33.58 and $651.50 before), and a harbor maintenance fee of 0.125% on ocean shipments. Those rates come from CBP’s own user fee table, and the limits from 1 October 2026 from its Federal Register notice 2026-15530.

On top sit your broker’s entry fee, a customs bond, terminal and delivery charges at the port, and drayage to your warehouse. None is large by itself; together they are usually the gap between the landed cost a founder estimated and the one on the invoice. Our landed cost calculator lets you put real numbers against each line before you commit to a price list.

• Merchandise processing fee: 0.3464%, minimum $34.58, maximum $670.86 per entry (since 1 October 2026)
• Harbor maintenance fee: 0.125% on ocean imports
• Customs broker entry fee, and a continuous or single-entry customs bond
• Ocean or air freight, plus terminal handling and drayage
• Any additional tariff in force on the day of entry

Getting set up to import

Someone must be the importer of record, and for most brands buying FOB Chattogram that someone is you. The importer of record is legally responsible for the declaration being correct, for the duty being paid and for the goods complying with US law, which is why classification and labelling are worth getting right before the first container, not after the first penalty notice.

You will need a customs broker, an employer identification number or CBP-assigned number, and a customs bond, which is the financial guarantee CBP requires on formal entries. Before the vessel loads in Bangladesh, an Importer Security Filing must be transmitted to CBP: ten data elements from the importer and two from the carrier, which is why it is known as 10+2. Two of the importer’s elements, the container stuffing location and the consolidator, may follow up to 24 hours before the ship reaches the US. CBP warns that failure to comply can mean monetary penalties, increased inspections and cargo delay, so make sure your broker has the shipment data early rather than at the cut-off.

Small parcels: the end of de minimis

Until 2025, shipments worth $800 or less could enter the US duty-free under the de minimis rule, which is what made direct-from-Asia dropshipping viable. That exemption was suspended for goods from all countries on 29 August 2025 and ends by law on 1 July 2027, so parcels from Bangladesh now pay duty like any other import.

For most brands the arithmetic now favours importing in bulk to a US warehouse or 3PL and shipping domestically: one entry, one set of fees, one duty calculation, and next-day delivery promises you can actually keep.

Couriered samples now pay duty

The suspension came from Executive Order 14324, signed on 30 July 2025, which covered goods from every country entered on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on 29 August 2025. When the Supreme Court held on 20 February 2026 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorise tariffs, Executive Order 14388, signed the same day, kept the suspension in place.

US Customs and Border Protection has since written the suspension into its own regulations under 19 U.S.C. 1321(b). An interim final rule in force since 24 June 2026 suspends the exemption indefinitely for courier, freight and every other route except the post, and a second rule did the same for postal shipments from 24 July 2026. CBP also notes that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted on 4 July 2025, terminates the exemption from 1 July 2027, so the change is set to become permanent.

For a US brand, the change lands first on samples. A fit sample, a pre-production sample or a sales sample sent by courier from Dhaka is now an import like any other: it needs a customs entry and pays the normal duty for its HTS code plus the 10% additional tariff on goods of Bangladesh, which on a cotton T-shirt comes to 26.5% of its customs value. Shipments worth US$2,500 or less can generally use CBP’s simpler informal entry, which carries a processing fee from US$2.77 per entry instead of the formal-entry minimum of US$34.58, both since 1 October 2026.

One exception is worth raising with your customs broker. HTS 9811.00.60 admits samples free of duty if they are valued at not over US$1 each, or are marked, torn, perforated or otherwise treated so they are unsuitable for sale or for use except as a sample, and are used in the US only to take orders for goods made abroad. The tariff schedule’s note on the Section 301 tariffs says those tariffs do not apply to goods properly entered under a chapter 98 provision when CBP agrees the entry is appropriate. Fit and photo samples have to be worn, so marking them usually defeats their purpose; budget duty on those, and confirm any exemption with your broker before relying on it.

• Couriered samples from Bangladesh need a US customs entry and normally pay duty
• The duty is the HTS rate for the garment plus the 10% additional tariff, on its customs value
• Entries worth US$2,500 or less can generally use informal entry
• Samples marked so they cannot be sold may enter free under HTS 9811.00.60, if CBP accepts the claim

Labelling under FTC rules

The Textile Fiber Products Identification Act, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, requires most clothing to show fibre content by generic name and percentage, the country of origin, and the identity of the manufacturer or dealer, which can be a company name or a Registered Identification Number (RN). The RN is optional; it simply uses less label space than a full company name.

Placement is part of the rule, not a detail: the FTC says country of origin must appear on the front of the label, and for garments with a neck the country-of-origin label goes on the inside centre of the neck, and the FTC says it should not be covered or obscured by another label. Separately, the Care Labeling Rule (16 CFR Part 423) requires a permanent care label giving at least one safe cleaning method. Settle all of this at sampling and check it on the sealed sample before you approve it.

• Fibre content by generic name and percentage, in descending order by weight
• Country of origin: “Made in Bangladesh”, on the front of the label
• Your company name or RN number
• Permanent care instructions with at least one safe cleaning method
• For garments with a neck: the origin label at the inside centre of the neck, not obscured

Kidswear: CPSIA

Children’s clothing for ages 12 and under needs a Children’s Product Certificate based on testing at a CPSC-accepted third-party laboratory, including lead limits for coatings and trims, and a permanent tracking label showing who made it, where and when so a recall can be traced. Drawstrings on children’s upper outerwear are treated as a substantial product hazard, so hoods and necks are designed without them. Sleepwear has its own flammability requirements.

Testing can be done at accredited laboratories in Dhaka before shipment; keep the reports with your import records, and check the tracking-label content on the pre-production sample, because a tracking label discovered to be wrong after the goods land is a relabelling job across every carton. Since 8 July 2026 the certificate’s data must also be filed electronically with the customs entry, so give your broker the certificate before the goods ship.

Cotton traceability: UFLPA

Under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, US Customs and Border Protection presumes that goods containing inputs from Xinjiang were made with forced labour, and can detain them at the border. The burden of proof is on the importer, and cotton apparel is one of the sectors CBP targets hardest.

Bangladesh imports most of its cotton, so the answer has to be documentary, not verbal. Ask for the yarn and fabric origin records to come from the mill with the fabric, and keep them with your import records, so that if a shipment is questioned you can produce a traceable chain from bale to garment rather than an assurance.

• Cotton origin declaration naming the country the fibre came from
• Yarn and fabric purchase invoices, mill to factory
• Production records tying fabric rolls to your cutting tickets
• Transaction certificates where organic or recycled content is claimed

California: textile producer responsibility

California’s Responsible Textile Recovery Act (SB 707) creates the first US extended producer responsibility scheme for clothing. Producers selling covered textiles in California had to join the approved producer responsibility organisation by 1 July 2026, and CalRecycle selected Landbell USA as that organisation in February 2026. Penalties for producers outside the scheme apply once the organisation’s plan is approved, or from 1 July 2030 at the latest, and further obligations phase in through 2030.

If you sell in California, check whether you count as the producer, and keep fibre composition and weight data per style, because that is what the scheme reports on. Ask for it with each order: it costs nothing to collect during production and is expensive to reconstruct afterwards.

California: Proposition 65 warnings

Proposition 65, California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, says no business may knowingly and intentionally expose anyone to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without first giving a clear and reasonable warning. The list of chemicals is kept by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), and the warning requirement takes effect 12 months after a chemical is listed. The California Attorney General’s guide sets out the exemptions that matter to a clothing brand: businesses with nine or fewer employees, and exposures the business can show are below the “no significant risk” level for a carcinogen or the “maximum allowable dose level” for a reproductive toxicant. The Attorney General, district attorneys, the city attorneys of cities over 750,000 people and, after 60 days’ notice, private parties enforce it in court, and civil penalties run up to $2,500 per day for each violation.

Clothing is a regular target of those notices. A search of the Attorney General’s 60-day notice database on 17 October 2026 found 31 notices filed between 1 September 2021 and 18 September 2024 for products described as polyester with spandex (socks, leggings, sports bras, athletic shirts and athletic shorts), every one about bisphenol A (BPA). Of the 35 notices filed since January 2024 for products whose description includes “shirt”, 26 concern PFOA or PFOS and eight the phthalates DEHP or DINP. A notice is an allegation by the party that files it, not a court finding.

None of this means every garment needs a laboratory test. It means a brand selling in California should know which of its fabrics and trims fall in the categories these notices name, ask for test reports from an accredited laboratory for those, and decide with its own adviser whether a warning or a change of material is the answer. Ask at sampling, because a test after bulk production is the expensive way to find a problem.

• Polyester-spandex socks, leggings, sports bras and activewear: a BPA test report on the fabric
• Shirts, including T-shirts and swim shirts: test reports for PFOA and PFOS, and for phthalates such as DEHP and DINP
• On every report: the laboratory’s name and accreditation, the sample tested and the test method
• The warning decision made before the goods ship, not after a 60-day notice arrives

Shipping and landed cost

Most US orders move by sea from Chattogram, routed across the Pacific to the west coast or, for east coast ports, through the Suez Canal or around the Cape of Good Hope, with air freight from Dhaka for urgent drops. Transit times and rates swing with season and routing, so get a quote for your actual volume rather than working from a rule of thumb.

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 US ports. Each changed ship once on the way; the pages do not say where. Long Beach was quickest at 29 days 6 hours, then New York at 33 days 23 hours, Los Angeles 36 days 17 hours, Savannah 40 days 6 hours and Houston 55 days 19 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. East coast routings can also change at short notice: some lines are moving services back to the Suez Canal, Maersk’s MECL service from India and the Middle East to the US east coast among them, while Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd say their latest return depends on continued stability in the Red Sea, 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. By air, SEKO Logistics estimates 2 to 5 days from Dhaka to the US.

You can ask us for a DDP price, and for stable-duty markets that is the simplest option. In the US, be aware of what DDP means while tariffs keep changing: someone has to carry the risk of a rate that moves between quotation and arrival, and a DDP price that looks fixed is either priced with a buffer or will be revisited. Many US buyers prefer FOB plus a broker they control, so they see every line.

For start-ups and small brands in the US: 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.

The US gives Bangladesh no duty preference, so a small brand pays the normal rate for its product (16.5% on cotton knit tops, 32% on man-made fibre knits) plus the 10% Section 301 tariff on Bangladeshi goods that applies from 24 July 2026, and the duty-free de minimis route for small parcels has been suspended since 29 August 2025. Cost that into the landed price before comparing Bangladesh with a domestic maker; the price per piece usually still favours Bangladesh on cotton basics, but only the landed figure tells you. 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 United States

Bangladesh is 10 to 13 hours ahead of the mainland US while US clocks are on daylight saving time (March to November), and 11 to 14 hours ahead in winter, which works in your favour: a tech pack or a question sent at the end of your working day is on our desk at the start of ours, and we reply within one working day. We quote in US dollars. We ship FOB, CIF or DDP from Chattogram sea port or Dhaka airport; ask for the shipping term and the duty and tariff assumptions on your quote so your broker can check them. The factory making your order is named to you before production, with its audits, which is what a US retailer’s compliance team and a UFLPA enquiry both need.

A first US order, in order

The sequence below is what separates a clean first entry from a detained one. Entry problems often come from classification or documentation decided late.

• Appoint a customs broker and get your EIN or CBP-assigned number and a customs bond in place
• Agree the HTS code for every style, and check the current additional tariff on that code
• Model landed cost including duty, tariff, MPF, HMF, freight and drayage before setting retail prices
• Set label content to FTC rules, including origin placement on the front of the label
• For kidswear, book third-party testing and agree tracking label content at sampling
• Collect cotton origin documentation from the mill with the fabric, not at shipment
• Give your broker the data for the Importer Security Filing before the vessel loads
• Check whether California SB 707 applies to you, and record fibre and weight per style