US tariffs will worsen lives of poor workers in countries that manufacture for the world

Aside from the well known sweatshop conditions in these places, brands and manufacturers often offset new costs with lower wages and higher demands.

Politicians and economists have been pretty vocal in their response to the ongoing saga of Donald Trump’s tariffs. But much less has been heard from the world’s poorest workers about how they will be affected.

For when the US president first set out his reciprocal tariffs – later paused for 90 days – some of the highest rates were for countries like Vietnam (46%), Bangladesh (37%) and Cambodia (49%).

These are places that make huge amounts of the clothes we wear, and even the reduced 10% tariff could be a big blow to their economies – and the people who depend on them.

Because aside from the well known sweatshop conditions suffered by many workers in these places, brands and manufacturers often offset new costs by passing them on to workers in the form of lower wages and higher demands.

This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as “social downgrading”, was seen during the pandemic, when garment workers around the world faced mass layoffs and even worse working conditions to protect corporate profits when consumer demand decreased.

And those working conditions are already challenging. The minimum wage for one of Cambodia’s 1 million garment workers (from a total population of 16 million) is just US$208 (£155.50) per month.

Around 80% of...

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