- Huw Hughes
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Bangladesh commerce minister Tipu Munshi has called on the UK government
to take action to stop retailers cancelling orders and prevent the
potential widespread closure of factories that it could lead to.
Bangladesh, which is the world’s second largest garment exporter behind
China, employs approximately four million workers in around 4,000
factories.
The country has been in lockdown since 26 March, forcing workers to go
without work and without the government support offered in countries like
the UK.
Fashion retailers have come under heavy criticism since the outbreak of
Covid-19 after many revealed they would be cancelling large orders from
suppliers.
“The factories may collapse. They will not be able to pay key costs and
may not be able to run again. That’s a major problem,” Munshi told ITV
News. “The British government should take care of this. They have a
responsibility. In our country, the government has taken positive steps to
support [garment factories]. The UK should have to support the retailers
also, so there is a stimulus, so they can take this load to support us.”
An estimated 2.5 billion pounds of orders have been cancelled to date by
retailers such as Arcadia, Frasers Group, Asda, Debenhams, New Look and
Peacocks.
Marks & Spencer and Primark both confirmed last week they would be
paying for all placed orders, while New Look, which cancelled 20 percent of
its orders from the country shortly after closing its stores, told ITV it
has now reinstated some orders.
A New Look spokesperson said: “We regrettably had to inform suppliers we
could not place new orders and would be temporarily postponing outstanding
payments. We only did so out of absolute necessity. We have started making
some supplier payments where we are able to do so.”
NurPhoto via AFP
