The trade between Bangladesh and United states have leveled down significantly during the Covid-19 Pandemic. This adverse impact has affected the export of garments to the US. A decrease of 2.60 dollars in the price of imported apparel were observed by the US Department of Commerce February of this year, compared to 2.95 dollars in the SMEs of February 2020.
In the pandemic last year, Vietnam and Bangladesh were both producing t-shirts but there was a price difference. The T-shirt manufactured in Vietnam cost cost nearly twice as much in the US market compared with the t-shirt made in Bangladesh. A dozen cotton T-shirts from Bangladesh cost $17.99 in 2020, down from $22.43 in 2019, while a similar product from Vietnam cost $31.9 in 2020, down from $38.2 in 2019.
Knitwear exports struggled to maintain a 0.35 percent increase in March 2021 over March 2019; the average growth of knitwear exports from July to March 2020-21 is -1.15 percent compared to July to March 2018-19. Woven clothes are having their worst year ever, with exports falling by double digits since August 2020, and woven exports falling by 27.70 percent in March 2021 compared to March 2019. Between 2021 and 2019, the nine-month average growth rate was -17.62 percent. The downward price trend continues, with a 5.11 percent decrease in unit price in March 2021 compared to March 2019.
