Independent research · May 2026 - Present
Bangladesh apparel trade and worker protection
How did Bangladesh's position in US apparel sourcing change after Rana Plaza, and what can trade evidence tell us about protecting workers?
Start with the policy mechanism
The 2013 US suspension of Bangladesh's Generalized System of Preferences benefits is often grouped with the response to Rana Plaza. Yet most apparel was already excluded from that preference program. Treating every garment export as newly tariffed would give a regression the wrong treatment.
This project audits that exposure and describes sourcing changes using 120 official UN Comtrade records. Bangladesh's competitors provide context for market reallocation. They are not assumed to be unaffected control countries. Published labour research supplies separate evidence about workers.
Institutional sources: USTR's July 2013 guide and historical tariff and policy records.
Continued sourcing with uneven gains
5.60% → 6.26%
Bangladesh's share of US apparel import value, 2012 to 2018. Nominal imports grew 20.1%, from $4.52bn to $5.43bn.
+0.804 pp
Contribution from gains within knit and non-knit apparel. Changing US market composition offset 0.147 points, leaving a 0.657-point total gain.
Starting in 2013 gives a smaller 0.245-point gain through 2018. This sensitivity matters. Continued imports do not establish that reforms caused growth, prevented a larger decline, or improved every worker's circumstances.
One year contained several different shocks
24 April 2013
Rana Plaza collapses
A workplace disaster and a shock to public attention. It is distinct from subsequent trade and safety decisions.
European ParliamentMay 2013
Accord agreed
The text dated 13 May, signed on 15 May, combines inspections, remediation, worker representation and supplier incentives.
Original Accord27 June 2013
US GSP suspension announced
The decision concerns eligible products. Most apparel was already outside GSP. The proclamation was published on 2 July.
USTRJuly 2013
Further governance responses
The EU, Bangladesh and ILO launch the Sustainability Compact; the Alliance adds a separate buyer initiative. Several mechanisms overlap.
ILO31 July 2013
GSP expires across the program
The common lapse complicates any eligible-product comparison between Bangladesh and other beneficiaries.
USTR3 September 2013
CBP operational suspension date
CBP's corrected notice gives this date. An HTS change record instead lists 31 August; the discrepancy is retained in the policy notes.
CBP correction29 July 2015
GSP renewed
Retroactive duty refunds cover eligible entries during the lapse, with Bangladesh excluded. Restoration of the program is distinct from country reinstatement.
Federal Register
Approach and limits
The panel covers US-reported imports in HS 61 and 62, 2010-2019, from Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, India and the world. An exact symmetric decomposition separates changes within chapters from changes in the US market's chapter mix.
Values are current dollars in Comtrade's CIF-type field. They are not export volume or domestic value added. HS revisions change during the period. The analysis uses broad chapters and does not claim a tariff-line concordance. Wages, injuries and firm exits are outside this dataset.
Policy interpretation
Maintaining orders can give buyers an incentive to finance remediation and enforce standards. The original Accord included both supplier obligations and provisions for financially feasible improvements. This is a reason to assess purchasing practices alongside audits.
Experimental evidence on safety committees supports specific improvements in covered factories, with limits on duration and generalization. Aggregate trade resilience cannot reveal what happened to workers in factories that lost orders. Policy evaluation should follow them too.
Read the literature and version notes, including Boudreau (2024), Bossavie, Cho and Heath (2023), and Heath and Mobarak (2015).