9th April 2018

During April 2018, two five-year old clothing industry scandals involving corrupt South Asian governments played themselves out. In Bangladesh, a campaign to identify and punish the murderers of clothing union...

3rd April 2018

Bangladesh Alliance executive director Jim Moriarty said in late March that 88% of factory remediation is complete, with 84% of items most critical to life safety covered. 322 affiliated factories have...

21st March 2018

On March 15, the UN's Committee for Development Policy announced that Bangladesh had met all three criteria for graduating from the group of least-developed countries (LDC). The achievement - probably...

28th March 2017

Burma showed the strongest growth among apparel suppliers to developed countries in 2016, as the total volume shipped worldwide fell for the first time in five years . Clothesource Tradetrak measures...

27th March 2017

The European Union was reported on March 23 to have warned Bangladesh of suspending duty-free access unless Bangladesh makes progress in the implementing worker rights. The European Commission's Directorates General...

7th February 2017

US apparel imports (in square metres) grew 3.4% in December 2016 over December 2015, though falls in the previous six months a 2016 annual fall of 1.1%. Average prices per square metre...

8th August 2016

Bangladesh's garment industry seems unaware of the real threat the June/July terrorism incidents pose to its long-term viability. Threat 1: Islamist terrorism Islamist militants stormed an upmarket restaurant in the...

7th June 2016

In the first three months of this year, we saw a massive drop in Chinese apparel exports to the US. It doesn't mean the end of China's dominance. There's a...

12th February 2016

Just about every apparel industry commentator on the planet is constantly going on about rising cost prices. But do any of them look at what buyers are paying? In the year to...

5th November 2015

US apparel imports in September, measured in square metres of apparel, grew 4.8%, bringing growth in the moving annual total (MAT)  to September to 6.1%. As in most Septembers, China's...

28th July 2015

The US dollar value of Chinese apparel exports continued to fall in June. But, with exports to the UK and US remaining healthy, the fall seems mostly the result of...

22nd June 2015

The Bangladesh Alliance made a veiled threat to withdraw from Bangladesh on June 19 after yet another bizarre outburst from the country's Finance Minister. Ellen Tauscher, independent chair of the...