India Gets 18% US Tariff, Bangladesh Pays 19% — Yet Dhaka Walks Away With the Textile Crown

India Blinks at 18% While Bangladesh Plays Chess, Locks Zero-Tariff Entry for Key Textiles.

India may have secured a marginally lower 18% US tariff compared to Bangladesh’s 19%, but that so-called victory collapses the moment the shipment leaves the factory gate, because Bangladesh still eats India’s lunch in the textile export war through brutally lower labour costs, ruthless specialization in ready-made garments, and factory-scale efficiency that India simply hasn’t matched.  

Dhaka’s apparel industry is a one-machine war engine built for mass, speed and price—churning out millions of identical T-shirts, denim and fast-fashion basics with clockwork certainty—while India remains stuck as a scattered generalist juggling yarn, fabric, apparel, handlooms and compliance-heavy state regulations that bloat costs and slow deliveries.

 For US retailers obsessed with landed price, volume stability and zero surprises, a 1% tariff gap is meaningless when Bangladesh’s garments still arrive cheaper, faster and on contract, backed by a government that shields exporters with predictable policy and single-minded export focus.

India’s lower tariff helps on paper and benefits niche, value-added segments, but it does nothing to fix fragmented logistics, rising wages, policy flip-flops and execution drag—leaving Bangladesh, despite the higher tariff, firmly in command of the mass-market textile battlefield while India wins headlines and loses orders.