Trump’s War on Iran Threatens More Than Just Gas Prices

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GAZIPUR, Bangladesh — In the early 1990s, half the clothes sold in the US were made in America. Today, that figure is less than 3 percent, with most textile and apparel manufacturing transferred to Asia to take advantage of cheaper labor costs. 

While Donald Trump’s tariffs have cut into China’s market share, most of the manufacturing that the tariffs made too expensive for China to handle has shifted to Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Cambodia. Manufacturing in the US has actually declined as the tariffs have reduced demand.

Global textile production is in danger because of the situation in Iran. 

While the stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz promises to inflate the cost of manufactured goods for Americans, from a pair of blue jeans to a T-shirt, it is triggering a far more existential crisis in Asia, which is heavily dependent on the oil that passes through the strait. At risk are thousands of Asian textile workers, many of whom have already been forced by economic pressure to work long hours at wages that are barely sustainable.

Rehana Begum is typical. Every morning, she wakes before sunrise and leaves her one-room house in the crowded lanes of Gazipur and walks toward the garment factory where she has worked for nearly 11 years. Until recently, the rumbling noise of thousands of sewing machines meant a modicum of stability for workers stitching shirts and jeans destined for stores across Europe.

Now the factory suddenly falls silent several times a day.

“The electricity stops without warning,” Rehana, 28, said, standing outside the factory gates during an unscheduled shutdown earlier this week. “Sometimes we sit for hours doing nothing. Then the managers tell us to leave because there is no fuel for the generators.”

Her income has dropped sharply in recent weeks. Overtime has vanished. Work shifts are shorter. She now earns the equivalent of around $60 a month, less than half her previous wages.

“We are already poor,” she said quietly. “When the factory slows, our kitchen becomes empty first.”

Since escalating military tensions between the United States and Iran disrupted shipping routes earlier this year, fuel prices, insurance costs, and shipping delays have rippled across global markets.

Few countries have felt the consequences as intensely as Bangladesh, which imports most of its fuel and consequently relies heavily on stable energy supplies and prices to power its economy, 60 percent of which depends on exporting clothing. Its ready-made garment sector — the world’s second-largest after China’s — employs more than 4 million workers, most of them women from poor rural families.

In Ashulia, another industrial hub outside Dhaka, factory managers describe operating under conditions that are becoming increasingly unsustainable.

“We are surviving day by day,” said Mohammad Shahidullah, production manager at a mid-sized garment factory supplying European and American retailers. “Power cuts now happen several times daily. Diesel prices have increased sharply, and even when we can pay, supply is uncertain.”

Standing near rows of idle sewing stations during a midday outage, Shahidullah said factories are struggling to meet strict delivery deadlines demanded by international brands.

“Buyers still want the same prices and the same delivery schedules,” he said. “But our production cost has risen enormously because of fuel and transport.”

According to officials from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), many factories are operating below capacity, as energy shortages disrupt production cycles. Exporters also report delays at ports and airports because shipping routes through the Middle East remain unstable despite a fragile ceasefire.

“The problem is not only electricity,” said BGMEA director Faruque Hassan. “Global logistics have become unpredictable. Containers arrive late, freight costs rise suddenly, and buyers become nervous.”

For workers, the economic pressure is immediate.

At a tea stall near Ashulia’s industrial zone, several female garment workers gathered after finishing shortened shifts. Many said they were cutting meals, borrowing money, or delaying rent payments.

Nasima Akter, 32, said her husband recently lost work as a transport laborer because fuel shortages reduced trucking operations.

“Now both our incomes are unstable,” she said. “School fees for the children are overdue. We survive on loans from neighbors.”

Bangladesh’s garment industry has long depended on a model built around speed, low production costs, and cheap labor. Factories often operate on narrow margins while international fashion brands push suppliers to produce rapidly at competitive prices.

Industry analysts say the Hormuz crisis has exposed how vulnerable that system is to global shocks.

“Bangladesh became deeply integrated into the global economy without achieving energy security,” said economist Ahsan H. Mansur in Dhaka. “When a geopolitical crisis disrupts fuel flows, countries like Bangladesh absorb the shock immediately because the entire manufacturing chain depends on imported energy.”

He said the country’s growing dependence on imported liquefied natural gas, along with declining domestic gas production, have left industries exposed to volatile global markets.

Climate researchers and labor advocates argue the current crisis also reveals broader structural inequalities within global supply chains.

“The people suffering most are workers who had absolutely no role in creating this conflict,” said Taslima Akhter, a labor rights activist and photographer who has documented garment workers for years. “A war or geopolitical confrontation happens far away, but the consequences land directly on women workers already living paycheck to paycheck.”

Some factory owners say international brands have shown little flexibility despite worsening conditions.

“Certain buyers are understanding, but many still pressure suppliers to absorb losses,” said factory owner Abdul Kader in Narayanganj. “If we fail to deliver on time, they threaten to move orders elsewhere.”

That possibility worries workers already anxious about competition from countries with more stable energy systems.

As evening approached in Gazipur, Rehana Begum prepared to return home after another shortened workday. Around her, hundreds of workers streamed through narrow streets lined with roadside food stalls and crowded buses. The smell of diesel mixed with dust hanging in the humid air.

She said she does not fully understand the politics of the Middle East or the Strait of Hormuz. What she understands is much simpler.

“When fuel stops coming, our factory stops working,” she said. “And when the factory stops, our lives stop too.”

For Americans who may have just as much difficulty understanding the reasons why the US launched a war against Iran, the urgency in resolving the conflict may be less intense, but the end result will be increased inflation and markedly higher prices. The factories that once manufactured clothing in America have long since disappeared, and even if they were rebuilt, labor costs would make the clothes they produce much more expensive. 

The war’s cost may be felt more immediately in Bangladesh, but it is a lose-lose proposition for everyone.