The US has proposed fresh tariffs on 60 countries, including Bangladesh, because they have failed to prove they do not import industrial raw materials from places where forced labour is used.
The USTR found that Bangladesh has failed to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the import of goods produced with forced labour, thereby burdening or restricting US commerce.
“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable,” said USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer.
This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.
“We will no longer tolerate this disparity,” he said.
For economies that impose a forced labour import prohibition, that have committed to impose and enforce such a prohibition through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, or economies that have imposed a partial regime with the effect of preventing the import of certain forced labour goods, the USTR proposed 10 percent as the rate of additional duties.
Bangladesh has taken on commitments under the US-Bangladesh Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) with respect to a forced labour import prohibition, so the 10 percent tariff is applicable.
For all other economies, the USTR proposed 12.5 percent as the rate of additional duty.
The USTR also proposed a textile mechanism that would allow for a certain volume of apparel and textile imports from certain economies to enter the US at a reduced Section 301 tariff rate.
The use of forced labour in the production of cotton is well documented, and such imports are prohibited under US forced labour laws, according to the USTR investigation report.
Additionally, certain textile manufacturers are included on the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA) entity list.
As of marketing year 2025-2026, 92.8 percent of the cotton grown in China was grown in Xinjiang.
Witness testimony indicates that, in general, exports from this region to the 59 other investigated economies totalled $37.6 billion in 2025. Nearly all investigated economies imported cotton from China between 2021 and 2025.
According to independent reporting, regions reported importing cotton or cotton mixed products from China between 2016 and 2019, with Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam being among the largest importers by volume and by value.
Such reporting also observed that the top destinations of exports from China, specifically goods typically processed by other manufacturers into semi-finished materials or finished garments, were Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
This suggests that cotton goods from China are often exported to intermediary manufacturers of textiles, apparel and other downstream products.
Bangladesh does not import cotton from countries with enforced labour, said Faisal Samad, director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
The country has stopped importing cotton from China for many years, as the certificates of origin of raw materials provided to the buyers demonstrate, he said, adding that the BGMEA will sit with the US embassy soon and seek clarification on the issue.
The government is yet to be officially notified about the latest USTR move, said a senior official of the commerce ministry asking not to be named.
The USTR investigation covers economies such as the EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK, Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand, suggesting that the issue concerns a contested regulatory approach rather than a settled international norm, said Mohammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the Research and Policy Integration for Development.
The proposal reflects a growing tendency to use tariff threats to advance regulatory standards that have not been established through a multilateral agreement.
Bangladesh’s response should therefore combine principle and pragmatism.
“It should challenge the conceptual and legal basis of treating forced-labour import prohibition as a universal obligation -- it should avoid unconditional acceptance of wider US trade demands,” Razzaque added.
