The growth in Bangladesh's readymade garment exports to the US slowed down in nine  months (January-September) of 2019 as global consumption dropped amid economic woes while some competing countries grabbed more market share. Vietnam's export were however steady.  

Data released by Office of the Textile and Apparel (OTEXA) of the US Department of Commerce  (USDC) on Saturday showed Bangladesh's RMG exports to the US in January-September of this year grew by 9.96 per cent while it was 14.49 per cent in the first half (January-June) and 16.12 per cent in the first quarter (January-March).

The data showed that Vietnam's export growth to the US in the first nine months of this year remained steady while Cambodia and Turkey witnessed a sharp increase during this period. Bangladesh's earnings from RMG exports to the US in January-September period grew to $4.56 billion from $4.15 billion in the same period of last year.

'Still we have some growth in the US market but some of our competing countries are     growing fast in the market that means we are getting very little and our competing countries are getting more benefits from order shifting from China due to the US-China trade war."

Distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue Mustafizur Rahman made the observation saying despite the impact of global slowdown; Vietnam and Turkey's apparels exports are doing good in the US market.

OTEXA data showed although the US import of apparels from China remained still high,         the import in the first nine months of 2019 posted a 1.10-per cent negative growth with $20.10 billion against $20.32 billion in the same period in last year.

Vietnam's RMG export to the US in January-September of 2019 grew by 12.70 per cent to $10.35 billion from $9.19 billion in the same period of 2018. Among the competing countries, Vietnam registered the highest growth in the first nine months of this year, the OTEXA data showed.

Earlier, Bangladesh achieved 14.49 per cent growth in RMG export to the US in January-June and it was the highest growth among the competing countries. Apparel exports of Cambodia to the US in first nine months in 2019 grew by 11.13 per cent to $2.02 billion from $1.82 billion in the same period of last year.

Cambodia's RMG export growth to the US was 8.30 per cent in the January-June period and 5.96 was in the first quarter of this year. The US apparel import from India in January-September of 2019 grew by 8.37 per cent to $3.23 billion from $2.98 billion in the same period of 2018. Apparel export of Turkey in January-September in 2019 grew by 9.17 per cent to $470.11 million from $430.62 million in the same period of last year.

Turkey's export to the US continued to increase in the nine months of this year and the export growth was 6.09 per cent in the first half of the year while it was 5.61 per cent in the first quarter, the data showed.