US Apparel Tariffs in 2026: China vs Bangladesh, Explained
How US apparel tariffs compare for China vs Bangladesh in 2026: the three duty layers, the China-only Section 301 gap, and what to confirm before costing.
The short answer
As of June 2026, a typical cotton woven shirt landing in the US carries roughly 34% in duty from China and about 26–27% from Bangladesh. Same garment, same port, a gap of around seven points. Most of that gap is one thing: a China-only penalty called Section 301 that adds 7.5% on top of everything else and hits no other major sourcing country.
That is the number to anchor on. The rest of this piece is the mechanics behind it, what the US Supreme Court changed in February, and the one honest caveat that stops this from being a permanent guarantee. Rates are moving fast in 2026, so treat every figure here as a working estimate and confirm the live duty for your specific product with your customs broker before you cost an order.
The three layers of US duty
US apparel duty is not one number. It is a stack, and you only understand your landed cost once you can see each layer separately.
- Layer 1, the base MFN/HTS duty. The standard tariff every country pays on a given garment, set by fibre content and construction. Woven cotton runs roughly 9–20%; woven man-made fibre can reach about 32%. Neither China nor Bangladesh has a US apparel free-trade agreement, so both pay this base equally. A cotton poplin shirt sits near 16.5% for both origins.
- Layer 2, the 10% Section 122 surcharge. A flat 10% import surcharge that, as of June 2026, applies to every country. China and Bangladesh both carry it, so it does not move the comparison between them.
- Layer 3, Section 301, China only. An additional 7.5% US duty on Chinese apparel, in force since 2020 under List 4A. It was not struck down by any recent court ruling, and Bangladesh does not carry it. This is the layer that creates the gap.
Add the layers and the picture is clean. Two of the three apply to everyone. The third applies to China alone.
| Duty layer | China | Bangladesh |
|---|---|---|
| Base MFN/HTS (cotton woven shirt) | ~16.5% | ~16.5% |
| Section 122 surcharge (all countries) | +10% | +10% |
| Section 301 List 4A (China only) | +7.5% | — |
| Approx. total landed duty | ~34% | ~26–27% |
The base rate varies with the garment. A man-made-fibre jacket starts higher than a cotton shirt for both origins. What stays constant is the structure: China pays the same base, the same surcharge, and then 7.5% more that Bangladesh never sees.
What the 2026 Supreme Court ruling changed
If your tariff mental model is from 2025, update it. On 20 February 2026, the US Supreme Court struck down (6-3) the IEEPA "reciprocal" tariffs, the country-by-country rates that had been the headline number for over a year. Those rates are gone.
They were replaced, effective around 24 February 2026, by the flat 10% Section 122 surcharge on all imports. Two things matter about that replacement:
- It is uniform. Where the old reciprocal regime gave different countries different headline rates, the 10% applies to everyone. The headline lever that used to separate origins has, for now, been flattened.
- It is temporary and contested. Section 122 carries a 150-day statutory cap, so on its current footing it expires around 24 July 2026 unless extended. It is itself under court challenge, though it stays collected while that plays out.
So the volatile, fast-moving part of the stack is exactly the part that treats every country the same. The durable, predictable part, the China-only 7.5%, is the part that favours Bangladesh. The piece of the tariff picture most likely to change in the next few months does nothing to close the China–Bangladesh gap. The piece least likely to change is the gap itself.
One related development for completeness: a US–Bangladesh framework signed on 9 February 2026 (a 19% rate with a conditional zero-tariff-on-apparel mechanism) became legally inoperative after the 20 February ruling. Bangladesh now sits at the flat 10% baseline like everyone else. The framework is not what makes Bangladesh cheaper today; the absence of Section 301 is.
The small-parcel backdoor is closed
For a stretch, very low-value shipments entered the US duty-free under the de minimis rule, parcels under $800. That is what let ultra-fast-fashion sellers ship single orders direct from China and skip duty entirely.
That door is shut. De minimis ended for China on 2 May 2025 and globally on 29 August 2025, and it remains suspended through 2026. There is no small-parcel duty-free route from any origin now. If part of your cost case ever leaned on parcels under the threshold, that advantage is gone, and gone hardest for China, because Section 301 still applies on top once the parcel is dutiable.
The honest caveat
Here is the part a brochure would skip. In March 2026, the US Trade Representative opened new Section 301 investigations into roughly 16 trading partners, and Bangladesh is on that list (alongside Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand). An investigation is not a duty. It may lead to one, it may not, and the timeline is long. But it would be dishonest to sell Bangladesh's edge as a guaranteed, permanent number when the same mechanism that penalises China is now being pointed, in part, at Bangladesh too.
So do not read the 7.5% gap as locked forever. Read it as two things that hold regardless of how that probe lands:
- A structural advantage today. On the goods you are shipping this quarter, Bangladesh lands roughly seven points lighter on a cotton woven shirt. That is real money on real orders, now.
- A diversification advantage always. The lesson of the last 18 months is that any single trade lane can be repriced by a court ruling, an executive order, or a new investigation, sometimes within days. A buyer concentrated entirely in China felt every one of those swings. A buyer with a live second base felt fewer.
This is the actual case for moving volume, and it is why the right partner matters more than the right spreadsheet cell. What protects you is a credible, ready alternative and someone on the ground who tracks these changes and can re-cost an order the week a rate moves, not the quarter after. We go deeper on building that second lane in our China-plus-one sourcing guide.
The China risks that are not tariffs
Duty is only half the China exposure. Two non-tariff risks sit on Chinese apparel that Bangladesh simply does not carry, and they do not show up in a landed-cost calculation until they cost you a whole shipment.
- Forced-labour enforcement (UFLPA). The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act lets US Customs detain China-linked cotton goods at the border on a presumption of forced labour in the supply chain, putting the burden on the importer to prove otherwise. Cotton is squarely in scope. A detention is not a duty you can model; it is a held container, a documentation scramble, and a missed delivery window. Bangladesh-origin cotton goods do not face this China-specific enforcement.
- Single-lane concentration. Beyond any one rule, putting all your woven volume through one country means one policy event can hit your entire programme at once. Diversification is not a hedge against a number; it is a hedge against the next surprise you have not priced yet.
Put the duty gap and these together and the comparison is no longer close. China carries roughly seven extra points of duty and a border-detention risk on cotton and full concentration exposure. Bangladesh carries none of those three.
How EliteHeights helps
We are a family-owned, tier-1 woven-garment floor in Dhaka, 21 lines and around 700,000 pieces a month, already producing for Mango, Zara, Tommy Hilfiger, LIDL, Calvin Klein, and Peacocks. On tariffs specifically, three things we do that matter to a buyer weighing a move off China:
- We track this and price it for you. The figures above move. We quote you the landed or CIF number, not just an FOB you then have to layer duty onto in the dark. When a rate shifts, you get a re-cost, not a surprise on the customs invoice. (If the landed-cost build-up is unfamiliar, here is how landed cost works.)
- We are a second base that is ready now. Not a pilot, not a six-month qualification. A floor already running brand programmes, with the compliance and QC in place, that can take woven volume this season. Diversification only protects you if the alternative is real and ready, and ours is.
- You get a named partner, not a portal. I am Nehal Nafcy, and I work directly with buyers on this. When a tariff headline drops, you have one accountable person who has read it, knows your programme, and can tell you whether it changes your cost and what to do about it. That is the point of a nimble partner in a volatile year: someone who pivots with you instead of leaving you to read the trade press alone.
None of this makes tariffs simple. It makes them somebody's job other than only yours. To see where your core woven programme lands from Bangladesh today, with duty included and the China comparison spelled out on your actual styles, get an indicative landed quote and I will come back with numbers you can use.
The honest summary: China's tariff disadvantage on woven apparel is real, mostly structural, and stacked on top of border and concentration risks that Bangladesh does not carry. The exact figures will keep moving in 2026, so confirm the live rate with your broker before you commit. The direction has been steady, and a ready second base with someone accountable on it is the position you want when the next change lands.