From Black Thursday to Trump's tariffs: A look at the worst market crashes since 1929

Global markets tumbled on Monday in the wake of sweeping tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump. The falls are amongst some of the most dramatic in history, with experts fearing the trade war could spark a recession.



Issued on: 07/04/2025 -
FRANCE 24

People stand on a breadline as they wait patiently for food on New York's Lower East Side, during the Great Depression in 1930. © AP archives


Monday's stock market collapses in Asia and Europe after China retaliated to steep US tariffs revived memories of similar market turmoil after the Covid pandemic and the last global financial crisis.

Analysts called the falls "historic" and some even described it as a "bloodbath", recalling previous collapses since the start of the last century.

Read moreLive: World markets tumble as Trump's tariffs spark global trade war

2020: Pandemic

Global stocks crashed in March 2020 after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, putting much of the world under lockdown.

On March 12, 2020 – the day after the announcement – Paris fell 12 percent, Madrid 14 percent and Milan 17 percent. London dropped 11 percent and New York 10 percent in the worst fall since 1987.

Further falls came over the following days, with US indexes dropping more than 12 percent.

The rapid response by national governments, which dug deep to keep their economies afloat, helped most markets rebound within months.

2008: Subprime crisis

The 2008 global financial crisis was caused by bankers in the United States giving subprime mortgages to people on shaky financial footing and then selling them off as investments, fuelling a housing boom.

When borrowers became unable to pay their mortgages, millions lost their homes, the stock market crashed and the banking system buckled, culminating with the dramatic bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman Brothers.

From January to October that year, the world's main stock markets fell between 30 and 50 percent.

2000: Dot.com bubble

The start of the millennium saw the deflation of the tech bubble caused by venture capitalists throwing money at unproven companies.

From a record 5,048.62 points on March 10, 2000, the US tech-heavy Nasdaq index lost 39.3 percent in value over the year.

Many internet startups went out of business.

1987: Black Monday

Wall Street crashed on October 19, 1987, on the back of large US trade and budget deficits and interest rates hikes.

The Dow Jones index lost 22.6 percent, causing panic on markets worldwide.

1929: Wall Street collapse

October 24, 1929 became known as "Black Thursday" on Wall Street after a bull market imploded, causing the Dow Jones to lose more than 22 percent of its value at the start of trade.

Stocks recouped most lost ground during the day but the rot set in: October 28 and 29 also saw huge losses in a crisis that marked the beginning of the Great Depression in the United States and a global economic crisis.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

RECYCLING IS TOXIC WASTE

Hundreds of firefighters battle massive blaze at Paris recycling plant


A huge inferno tore through a building in Paris's 17th arrondissement on Monday, with flames and thick black smoke rising high into the sky and casting a dark cloud across the French capital.


Issued on: 08/04/2025 /
FRANCE 24

A column of smoke rises from a burning building on Boulevard de Douaumont, in Paris, France, April 7, 2025. © Abdul Saboor, Reuters


A major fire broke out in Paris on Monday close to a new court complex designed by Renzo Piano, sending smoke across the city and prompting authorities to urge the public to stay away from the zone.

A thick black cloud could be seen across the French capital as firefighters battled the blaze that ripped through one of the city's biggest recycling plants.

Around 60 fire trucks and 200 firefighters were at the scene, the fire brigade said, adding that there were no victims.

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire on Boulevard de Douaumont, in Paris, France, April 7, 2025. © Abdul Saboor, Reuters

Flames lit up the night sky and authorities closed part of the main ring road around Paris to allow access to the burning building for fire-fighting vehicles.

"The building is completely gutted and destroyed," Geoffrey Boulard, mayor for the affected 17th arrondissement (district), told BFM television, but all staff inside had been evacuated.

"Fire fighters arrived very quickly, but the fire happened underground and then spread through the building," Boulard said.Geoffrey Boulard, mayor for the affected 17th arrondissement, told BFM television

The fire at the Syctom recycling plant was right next to Paris's main court complex, whose centrepiece is a glass skyscraper designed by Italian architect Piano and inaugurated in 2018.

The plant, which started operations in 2019, was designed to handle household waste for nearly a million Paris residents, according to city authorities.

"The most important thing tonight is that a disaster on this scale did not have any human damage," the site's president Corentin Duprey told BFM.

Geoffrey Boulard, mayor for the affected 17th arrondissement, told BFM television. He said 31 employees were present when the blaze started in a recycling zone in a basement "where there was the most combustible material".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

KULTURAL HUBRIS

‘Cult of talent’ in French cinema industry enabled ‘endemic’ sexual abuse, inquiry finds

A parliamentary inquiry on sexual abuse in France entertainment industry set to be released Wednesday found sexual abuse "systemic" and "persistent". The inquiry, led by Greens MP Sandrine Rousseau, slammed a "cult of talent and creative genius" in France that enabled a culture of impunity.


Issued on: 08/04/2025 -
FRANCE 24

Gerard Depardieu faces charges of abuse that allegedly occurred during a 2021 film shoot. © Thierry Roge, AFP


French MPs have criticised "endemic" abuse in the entertainment sector after a months-long inquiry into sexual violence that saw stars and other actors reveal instances of bullying and assault.

The inquiry, led by feminist Greens MP Sandrine Rousseau, was spurred by allegations from Judith Godrèche who accused two French directors of abusing her when she was a teenager.

In a final damning report, seen by AFP ahead of its release on Wednesday, the inquiry accused the entertainment sector of being a "talent grinding machine" and made 86 recommendations to better protect actors and children on set.

"Moral, sexist, and sexual violence in the cultural sector is systemic, endemic, and persistent," read a conclusion from Rousseau, who has overseen six months of hearings that saw testimony from 350 people in the film, theatre and TV sectors.


The report follows the sexual assault trial last month of screen legend Gerard Depardieu, who is the highest-profile figure to face criminal accusations following the #MeToo movement which encouraged women to speak out against violence.

Read moreDepardieu on trial: What we know about the accusations against French cinema’s fallen giant

#MeToo was publicly resisted by some in the French entertainment sector when it first emerged in 2017, including actress Catherine Deneuve, who saw it as a puritan American import that encouraged the airing of unsubstantiated allegations.

Depardieu, who faces accusations from around a dozen women, was backed by 60 film and art figures in a 2023 petition, while President Emmanuel Macron has called him a "towering actor" who "makes France proud".

Read moreMacron says Depardieu victim of a 'manhunt' following fresh allegations

Depardieu denies the allegations and told his trial that he "adored" women and was not a "groper". A verdict is due on May 13.

The report questions the prevalent view in France that abusive behaviour by top cultural figures can be excused in the name of art.

"The 'cultural exception', but at what price?" it asks.

"In our country, there's a cult of talent and creative genius," Erwan Balanant, a centrist MP on the commission, told AFP.
Saying 'no'

Some of France's biggest stars agreed to testify to the parliamentary inquiry including Juliette Binoche, Jean Dujardin and Pierre Niney, but usually behind closed doors and sometimes on condition that their remarks were not made public.

Judith Godrèche helped spur the creation of the French inquiry. © Geoffroy van der Hasselt, AFP

Some of the strongest testimony came from Godreche, 53, who railed against the "impunity" in the film industry and the "inaction" of its leading lights.

"There’s not a single person from my past with an established role in the cinema world – and therefore, in positions of power ... who has written to me since I spoke out," said the actress who appeared in "The Spanish Apartment", "The Man in the Iron Mask", or "Potiche", which featured Depardieu.

Fellow actress Sara Forestier described in November how she had repeatedly said "no" to directors who wanted to sleep with her and who threatened to take roles away if she refused.

"Until the day I said 'no' one too many times – and I paid the price for it," she added, recounting how she had to leave a shoot in 2017 after allegedly being slapped by an actor, who was later identified as Nicolas Duvauchelle.
Crossing the line?

Jean Dujardin, an Oscar winner in 2012 for his turn in "The Artist", conceded that some male actors might have failed to denounce abuse in the past, but that attitudes were changing.

Jean Dujardin welcomed the impact of #MeToo on the film industry. © Jemal Countess, AFP

"We don't see everything – and perhaps we don't want to see," Dujardin, 52, said, according to a transcript published last month.

He added that "we no longer say what we used to say 10 or 15 years ago, and we won’t say the same things in 10 years either... I feel that sexist reactions and clumsy remarks are gradually disappearing".

In mid-March, veteran celebrity agent Dominique Besnehard challenged some of the testimony from actresses about sexual abuse, leading to a clash with Rousseau who accused him of making "derogatory remarks".

"When I was an agent, I saw some actresses cross the line a little. You don't go to a hotel with a director," Besnehard said.

Gilles Lellouche, a widely admired French star who voices Obelix in the Asterix films, recounted an experience involving a woman director who tried to "seduce" him.

"I didn't feel violently attacked – it was things like hands under my shirt. If I had done the same to a woman, it wouldn't have been okay," he said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

THE LAST COIONY VIVE INDEPENDENCE

French parliament restricts birthright citizenship in Mayotte, left slams 'laboratory of far right'


France's parliament on Tuesday adopted a bill restricting birthright citizenship enshrined in the French constitution for children born in its overseas territory of Mayotte. The island has seen mass immigration from its Indian Ocean neighbour, the Comoros islands. The bill, introduced by the right wing, has been criticised by left parties.


Issued on: 08/04/2025 - 
FRANCE 24

The new law will require both foreign parents of a child born in Mayotte to have lived there for at least a year. 

© Stephane de Sakutin, AFP/File


France's parliament on Tuesday definitively adopted a bill to restrict citizenship rights for children born in its Indian Ocean overseas territory of Mayotte.

The bill put forward by the right does not affect the "right of soil", also known as "jus soli", for the rest of France.

But critics on the left have slammed the bill as a concession to the anti-immigration far right and fear it paves the way for restrictions nationwide.

At present, a child born in France to foreign parents can be granted French nationality from the age of 13, provided he or she has spent a certain amount of time in France.


But further conditions have existed since 2018 for Mayotte, a French archipelago that attracts a large number of migrants from its poorer neighbour, the Comoros islands, who travel there irregularly seeking a better life.

Until now, children born there additionally needed to have a parent who had resided there legally for at least three months at the time of birth to apply for nationality.

With the new bill, both parents will need to have legally lived there for at least a year, with an exception in place for single parents.

The Senate approved a final text on Thursday, and members of the lower-house national Assembly backed it on Tuesday.

Lawmaker Philippe Gosselin, from the right-wing Republican party, proposed the bill.

"The prospect of obtaining French nationality is an undeniable factor in irregular migration" to the overseas territory, he said.

But Greens member of parliament Dominique Voynet warned the bill foresaw "the end of the right of soil in France".

"Mayotte is about to become a laboratory for the ideas of the far right," she said.

Marine Le Pen, parliamentary leader of the far-right National Rally party, said the new law's impact would be minimal and that it was urgent "to simply ban the right of soil across all national territory".

Le Pen is still a member of parliament despite a court last week sentencing her to a five-year ban on running for office for embezzling European Union funds, charges she denies.

Around 320,000 people live on Mayotte, according to France's national statistics agency.

A 2019 study found that half the population were foreigners, a third of whom were born in the French territory.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou in February called for a national debate on immigration and what it means to be French, days after stirring controversy with comments about immigrants "flooding" France.

Read moreFrench PM Bayrou sparks outrage with far-right rhetoric on migrant ‘flood’

Right-wing Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin has said the constitution should be changed to end citizenship rights granted to people born in France.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Did fictional character Ron Vara 'craft' Trump's tariff policies?

TRUTH OR FAKE © FRANCE 24
By: Catalina Marchant de Abreu
Issued on: 08/04/2025 -
05:42 min
From the show

As US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs threaten to tank the global economy, many are claiming that his anti-China trade policies are based on the theories of a fake economics expert called Ron Vara, a fictional character invented and often cited by Trump's top trade advisor, Peter Navarro. We explain in this edition of Truth or Fake.

At least 98 dead after roof collapses at Dominican Republic nightclub

Rescue teams in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic raced to find for survivors after the Jet Set nightclub's roof collapsed early Tuesday, killing at least 98, including a politician and an MLB star. Renowned singer Rubby Perez and others remain trapped, with over 400 rescuers at the scene.


Issued on: 09/04/2025 
FRANCE 24

A drone view shows a site of the collapsed Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, April 8, 2025. © Erika Santelices, Reuters


Rescuers raced to find survivors Tuesday among the rubble of a Dominican Republic night club where at least 98 people, including a politician and a Major League Baseball star, died in an early-morning roof collapse.

Renowned Dominican merengue singer Rubby Perez, who was on stage at the popular Jet Set nightclub when the roof caved in shortly after midnight, was one of those caught up in the calamity.

Emergency workers said the 69-year-old was among dozens of people trapped in the rubble, some of whom were heard crying for help.

Several Dominican media outlets later reported that Perez had been found dead but Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the Emergency Operations Center, said forensics experts had "not confirmed that they found the body".

Over 370 rescue personnel combed mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin sheets for survivors.

Among the dead was 51-year-old retired MLB pitcher Octavio Dotel, who won a World Series in 2011 with the St Louis Cardinals.

He was rescued alive but died of his injuries while being taken to hospital, local media reported.

A black-and-white photo of the player and images of the Dominican flag were projected onto the scoreboard at Citi Field in New York before Tuesday's game between the New York Mets and the Miami Marlins.

"Peace to his soul," the Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League wrote on social media.

Octavio Dotel #28 of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches in the eighth inning during Game Three of the MLB World Series against the Texas Rangers at Rangers Ballpark, October 22, 2011 in Texas. © Tom Pennington, AFP

Local media said there were between 500 and 1,000 people in the club when disaster struck shortly at 12:44am local time (4:44am GMT). The club has capacity for 700 people seated and about 1,000 people standing.

Dozens of ambulances ferried the injured to hospital, as scores of people gathered outside the venue desperately seeking news of their loved ones.

Perez was on stage when there was a blackout and the roof came crashing down, according to eyewitness reports.

"It was sudden. I thought it was an earthquake, so I threw myself to the ground and covered my head," Enrique Paulino, Perez's manager, told reporters.

"One of our saxophonists is dead, we tried to get to the area where Rubby was but there was too much debris there," he said.

Perez's daughter Zulinka told reporters she had managed to escape after the roof collapsed, but he did not.

She said she had confirmation that her father was "alive", though injured and still trapped.

Also among the dead was the governor of the Monte Cristi municipality, Nelsy Cruz, according to President Luis Abinader.

The death toll started at 15 and kept rising throughout the day. By evening it had reached 79.

"As long as there is hope for life, all authorities will be working to recover or rescue these people," said Mendez.

President Abinader visited the scene and declared three days of national mourning.

Personnel from civil defense and firefighters work at the Jet Set nightclub following the collapse of its roof in Santo Domingo on April 8, 2025. © Francesco Spotorno, AFP

'Hope for life'

Iris Pena, a woman who had attended the show, told SIN television how she escaped with her son.

"At one point, dirt started falling like dust into the drink on the table," she said.

"A stone fell and cracked the table where we were, and we got out," Pena recounted. "The impact was so strong, as if it had been a tsunami or an earthquake."

Dozens of family members flocked to hospitals for news.

"We are desperate," Regina del Rosa, whose sister was at the concert, told SIN. "They are not giving us news, they are not telling us anything."

Helicopter images revealed a large hole where the club's roof once was. A crane was helping lift some of the heavier rubble as men in hard hats dug through the debris.

Authorities have issued a call for Dominicans to donate blood.

The Instagram page of the Jet Set club said it has been in operation for more than 50 years, with shows every Monday until the early hours.

Its last post before Monday's event invited fans to come and "enjoy his (Perez's) greatest hits and dance in the country's best nightclub".

On Tuesday, the club issued a statement saying it was working "fully and transparently" with authorities.

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, received over 11 million visitors in 2024, according to the tourism ministry.

Tourism generates about 15 percent of GDP, with visitors attracted by its Caribbean beaches, music and nightlife, as well as the colonial architecture of Santo Domingo.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

FALSE FLAG TO JUSTIFY INVASION 

US claim that China poses threat to Panama Canal triggers angry Beijing response

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the Panama Canal "faces ongoing threats" from China. The statement triggered a fiery response from Beijing, which claimed that the attempt to "sabotage" Chinese-Panamanian cooperation was rooted in the US' own geopolitical interests.


Issued on: 09/04/2025
By: FRANCE 24

A cargo ship is loaded at the Port of Rodman in West Panama during the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Panama Canal, Tuesday, April 8, 2025.

 © Matias Delacroix, AP

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the Panama Canal faces ongoing threats from China but that together the United States and Panama will keep it secure.

Hegseth's remarks triggered a fiery response from the Chinese government, which said: “Who represents the real threat to the Canal? People will make their own judgement.”

Speaking at a ribbon cutting for a new US-financed dock at the Vasco Nuñez de Balboa Naval Base after a meeting with Panama President José Raúl Mulino, Hegseth said the US will not allow China or any other country to threaten the canal's operation.

"To this end, the United States and Panama have done more in recent weeks to strengthen our defense and security cooperation than we have in decades," he said.

Hegseth alluded to ports at either end of the canal that are controlled by a Hong Kong consortium, which is in the process of selling its controlling stake to another consortium including BlackRock Inc.

“China-based companies continue to control critical infrastructure in the canal area," Hegseth said. "That gives China the potential to conduct surveillance activities across Panama. This makes Panama and the United States less secure, less prosperous and less sovereign. And as President Donald Trump has pointed out, that situation is not acceptable.”

Hegseth met with Mulino for two hours Tuesday morning before heading to the naval base that previously had been the US Rodman Naval Station.

On the way, Hegseth posted a photo on X of the two men laughing and said it was an honor speaking with Mulino. “You and your country’s hard work is making a difference. Increased security cooperation will make both our nation's safer, stronger and more prosperous,” he wrote.

Late Tuesday, Mulino and Hegseth released a joint statement.

A vaguely worded portion of the statement suggested the two had discussed the tolls the United States pays for its ships crossing the canal. It said that within the canal’s framework, "the Republic of Panama and the United States of America will work, as established, on a mechanism to compensate for the payment of tolls and charges".

Panama's Foreign Relations Ministry did not immediately answer a request for clarification.

But the Spanish and English versions had at least one significant discrepancy. The Spanish version included that “Secretary Hegseth recognised the leadership and inalienable sovereignty of Panama over the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas.” That sentence appeared nowhere in the English version.

The visit comes amid tensions over Trump’s repeated assertions that the US is being overcharged to use the Panama Canal and that China has influence over its operations – allegations that Panama has denied.

Shortly after the meeting, the Chinese Embassy in Panama slammed the American government in a statement on X, saying the US has used “blackmail” to further its own interests and that who Panama carries out business with is a “sovereign decision of Panama ... and something the US doesn't have the right to interfere in”.

“The US has carried out a sensationalistic campaign about the ‘theoretical Chinese threat’ in an attempt to sabotage Chinese-Panamanian cooperation, which is all just rooted in the United States' own geopolitical interests,” the embassy wrote.

05:44BUSINESS © FRANCE 24

After Hegseth and Mulino spoke by phone in February, the US State Department said that an agreement had been reached to not charge US warships to pass through the canal. Mulino publicly denied there was any such deal.

Trump has gone so far as to suggest the US never should have turned the canal over to Panama and that maybe that it should take the canal back.

Read more‘Trump is lying’: Panama’s president refutes claims that US will take back canal

The China concern was provoked by the Hong Kong consortium holding a 25-year lease on ports at either end of the canal. The Panamanian government announced that lease was being audited and late Monday concluded that there were irregularities.

The Hong Kong consortium, however, has already announced that CK Hutchison would be selling its controlling stake in the ports to a consortium including BlackRock Inc., effectively putting the ports under American control once the sale is complete.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Mulino during a visit in February that Trump believes China’s presence in the canal area may violate a treaty that led the US to turn the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the American-built canal.

04:23FOCUS © FRANCE 24

Mulino has denied that China has any influence in the operations of the canal. In February, he expressed frustration at the persistence of the narrative. “We aren’t going to speak about what is not reality, but rather those issues that interest both countries,” he said.

The US built the canal in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.

“I want to be very clear, China did not build this canal,” Hegseth said Tuesday. “China does not operate this canal and China will not weaponise this canal. Together with Panama in the lead, we will keep the canal secure and available for all nations through the deterrent power of the strongest, most effective and most lethal fighting force in the world.”

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

REVANCHIST ECOCIDE

Trump signs executive order to 'turbocharge' coal mining across the US

US President Donald Trump signed executive orders Tuesday to boost coal mining and double electricity production to meet demands from artificial intelligence technologies. Surrounded by miners, Trump's orders remove coal extraction barriers and halt the shutdown of numerous coal-fired plants.



Issued on: 09/04/2025 -
By: FRANCE 24

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed executive orders to "turbocharge coal mining" in the country, seeking to "more than double" electricity production to keep up with power-hungry artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

The executive orders, which Trump signed surrounded by miners in hard hats, will lift regulatory barriers to coal extraction and suspend the planned closures of numerous coal-fired power plants across the country.

"We will end the government bias against coal," said the Republican, who instructed the Department of Justice to identify and fight any state or local regulations that were "putting our coal miners out of business."

Trump also said that it would be "possible to extract enormous amounts of critical minerals and rare earths, which, you know, we need for technology and high technology in the process of coal mining."

Lena Moffitt, director of the climate NGO Evergreen, criticised the president in a statement for using AI as "a cover to bail out his fossil fuel donors with the dirtiest, most expensive power source on the grid".

Production of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, has fallen sharply in the United States over the last fifteen years.

In 2023, coal accounted for just over 16 percent of total electricity production, outstripped by renewable energies at just over 21 percent.

Trump has long been a skeptic of climate change, and since his return to the White House has set about boosting fossil fuels through deregulation.

Last month his administration announced a wave of environmental rollbacks targeting the green policies of his predecessor Joe Biden.

Among the most significant of them was revisiting a 2024 rule that requires coal-fired plants to eliminate nearly all their carbon emissions or commit to shutting down altogether, a cornerstone of Biden's climate agenda.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Stunned by Trump’s tariffs, world clothing suppliers are preparing to squeeze workers

Analysis

US President Donald Trump’s wide-reaching “Liberation Day” tariffs have come crashing down on countries that rely heavily on the export of low-cost garments and textiles to the US. But while the levies seem unlikely to bring textile factories back to the US, they could be devastating for millions of low-wage garment workers already living hand to mouth.


Issued on: 08/04/2025 

FRANCE24
By: Paul MILLAR

This photograph taken on December 29, 2024, shows garment workers sewing clothes at a Snowtex Group textile factory in Dhamrai, a sub-district in Dhaka. © Munir uz Zaman, AFP


If the mark of a good pair of sneakers is the number of miles they’ve travelled, Nike’s must be top of the line. Of the 528 factories contracted by Nike to produce finished goods in 37 countries and regions across the world, just 28 of those are based in the US. Those factories directly employ some 4,117 workers – a figure that, presented on Nike’s interactive Manufacturing Map as a percentage of the total workforce of 1,149,901, is rounded down to 0 percent.

The rest, most of them at least, are in Asia – part of a decades-long policy of outsourcing production to countries where low wages have allowed the kind of mass production of low-cost clothing and footwear that has become a staple of globalised life. It is these countries – including major producers and exporters such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Indonesia – that supply Western brands with low-cost clothes, shoes and textiles. And it is these countries that have found themselves hit hardest by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Just what will happen to those jobs is anyone’s guess. While Trump has justified his global tariff regime with the promise of bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, the president has said little about his vision for the labour-intensive production lines built around cutting and sewing low-cost clothes and footwear. But whether those industries can survive in countries hammered by tariffs that could price them out of the lucrative US market remains far from clear.

Mark Anner, dean and distinguished professor at Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations, said that it was hard to imagine that Trump’s tariffs could drive textile production back to the US.

“Of the garments purchased in the US, 97 percent are made outside the US – only three percent of the garments we wear are made within the US,” he said. “So the idea that through this tariff regime, jobs would come back to the US – I just see that as highly unlikely for a whole bunch of reasons.”

55 cents an hour

One of the major challenges is likely to be lack of trained – or willing – labour. While 139,000 people worked in apparel manufacturing in the US as of January 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that number had shrunk to just under 85,000 by January this year. A statement by the National Council of Textile Organizations praising Trump’s tariff regime said that the broader US textile sector employed some 471,000 workers – a fraction of the country’s 170 million-strong labour force. What little garment and textile production that has stayed in the US has relied disproportionately on undocumented immigrant labour to keep costs down – the same undocumented workers that Trump has promised to crack down on.

Setting up domestic supply chains would also likely be a high barrier to bringing production back to the US, Anner said.

“Logistically, it's just very difficult. We're talking not just about the factory that sews the garments together, but the need for an entire supply chain to relocate,” he said.

“In terms of cost, one of the major exporters of garments to the US is Bangladesh – I was just doing the math on the hourly rate. You're looking at a minimum wage in the US of $7.25 – that's the federal minimum wage, but many states have higher minimum wages. And we’re talking about four million workers in Bangladesh making garments at 55 cents an hour. I don't know how that gets replicated in the US or moved to the US.”

And while supporters of rebuilding the US manufacturing base often point to higher levels of automation as a way to maintain a competitive edge against low-wage countries, the physical act of cutting and sewing fabric has been notoriously resistant to automation.

Unlike rigid materials such as metal and plastic, fabric shifts and flows like a living thing – and while electric sewing machines have been a staple of garment factories for more than a century, manufacturers still haven’t found a reliable way to wean them off the need for a pair of human hands.

China and US embark on tit-for-tat tariff retaliation

06:53BUSINESS © FRANCE 24

Uncertainty

The more immediate problem facing businesses is just how seriously to take Trump’s wide-reaching tariffs. The leaders of Vietnam and Bangladesh, both countries heavily dependent on exports to the US, have both pleaded with the US president for a stay of execution.

The Communist Party of Vietnam’s General Secretary To Lam has asked Trump for a 45-day delay so the two countries can strike a deal, insisting that his country is prepared to buy more US goods in exchange for a lower tariff rate. Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus has also said his government is keen to import more US agricultural products in exchange for leniency. Whether or not Trump takes them up on their offer is something the garment sector is watching closely.

“The question is, where do you go if you're tariff shopping? And this is the other part of the story – the uncertainty. If there's one thing that concerns companies as much as cost, it’s uncertainty,” Anner said. “How do you start thinking of investment elsewhere if this could change in a moment's notice?”

Without knowing what respective countries’ tariffs are likely to be in the long-term, he said, it was difficult to imagine that companies would invest the time and capital needed to shift production across the world.

“We're looking at about a 37 percent tariff on Bangladesh, but 26 percent on India, 29 percent on Pakistan and 46 percent on Vietnam – but Vietnam is now looking to reach out and negotiate down,” he said.

“But where would you go? If it was more mobile, maybe you're looking at Bangladesh, you shift to India because it's just under 10 percent lower, or Pakistan – but you don't know who's going to renegotiate, and where this will end up. It's not really clear who might be losing work now.”

Squeezing the workforce

Faced with an uncertain future, garment manufacturers will likely do what they have always done in times of crisis: squeeze. Dina Sidiqqi, an anthropologist at New York University, said that the costs of the tariffs would inevitably be borne by the workers on the production line.

“Additional costs will be absorbed the way they always are – by passing them down to workers,” she said. “Manufacturers do not want to see a dip in their profit levels. They will compensate by reducing the number of workers, and increasing production targets of those who remain.”

Just how much more clothing and footwear companies can cut production costs is unclear, with swathes of the global garment sector built on low-wage mass production. More than four million people are working in Bangladesh’s garment sector alone – the overwhelming majority of them women. Siddiqi said that 40 years of economic activity had had little effect on the wages workers were taking home.

Read more Fashion giants in rights drive after Bangladesh factory tragedy

“Bangladesh’s ‘comparative advantage’ in the global market depends upon the ability to provide the lowest possible cost of labour,” she said. “After four decades of a flourishing sector, Bangladeshi garment workers still have one of the lowest wages in the world – minimum monthly wage for today stands at 12,500 taka ($113 USD), far below the estimated living wage. There is no incentive for capital or the state to increase minimum wages in the current global garment supply chain.”

Anner said that without committing to moving production, competing on cost was the only option left to companies.

“In the garment sector historically, there's two ways to do that: to squeeze down on wages and to squeeze through productivity quotas – so, how fast you have to work, how many operations you need to do, how many collars you sew on per hour,” he said. “And that can go from 80 to 85 to 90, 92 (collars), and so on.”

Passing on the price hike

Although major companies have more leeway to lean on suppliers to squeeze production costs, brands and retailers have already warned that they’re prepared to pass the added costs of the tariffs on to consumers.

The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America – of which Nike is a member – has said that a $155 running shoe made in Vietnam would have to be marked up to $220 in US stores to compensate for the 46 percent tariff. Roughly half of Nike’s footwear is made in Vietnam.

“It's not clear to me what percentage brands will take out of their margins and what percentage will be passed on to consumers,” Anner said. “But something will be passed on to consumers, and we know that would lead to a decline in demand, which would lead to a decline in the size of production orders, which would mean less workers would be needed – so we could see dismissals or cutbacks in hours as a result.”

The result, Siddiqi said, could well be the kind of economic chaos not seen in the sector since the height of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

'With Trump in the White House, there is no predictability whatsoever,' economist says

09:50A PROPOS © FRANCE 24
 

“The pandemic made it clear that the global garment supply chain privileges brands and retailers, recalling older colonial relationships,” she said. “European and US brands were able to legally extricate themselves from contractual obligations once demand for clothing in their markets plunged, leaving manufacturers in the global South in the lurch. Factories closed down and hundreds of thousands of workers lost employment."

“The lesson, in other words, is that the model of low wage export-oriented manufacturing – in an unequal global economic order – leaves countries like Bangladesh deeply vulnerable to the vagaries of the market. The system distributes risks embedded in supply chains unevenly and downward.”

Should these tariffs become a permanent fixture of the world’s economy, she said, the global division of labour that has drawn millions of workers to production lines across South and Southeast Asia could be damaged beyond recognition.

“The consequences for workers and their families would be devastating, if brands withdraw orders from Bangladesh and place them elsewhere,” she said. “The ripple effects include having to withdraw children from schools and put them to work, and to forgo basic healthcare."

“As happened with the boycotts in the 1990s and during the pandemic, in the absence of any insurance [or] social security, workers will face a dismal immediate future.”

Mahmoud Khalil Rips Columbia University's Complicity in Trump Rampage

"The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia's repression playbook concerning Palestine."


Then-Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil spoke to the press in New York City on June 1, 2024.
(Photo: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Apr 07, 2025

COMMON DREAMS

In an op-ed dictated to his attorney from a detention facility in Louisiana, Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil late last week condemned the Ivy League institution's complicity in the Trump administration's targeting of Palestinian rights advocates and campus dissent more broadly.

Khalil, who has said he is a political prisoner, argued in the Friday op-ed that Columbia "laid the groundwork for my abduction" last month by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents. The Trump administration's detention of and effort to deport Khalil—who helped lead student protests against Israel's assault on Gaza—have sparked widespread alarm and backlash, much of it directed at Columbia.

"The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia's repression playbook concerning Palestine," Khalil wrote, pointing to the recent arrests of other international students who have spoken out in support of Palestinian rights.

Writing in the university's daily student newspaper, Khalil noted that "Columbia has suppressed student dissent under the auspices of combating antisemitism," an approach also taken by the Trump administration, which said the arrest of Khalil was carried out in alignment with the president's "executive orders prohibiting antisemitism."

"This institution's singular concern has always been the vitality of its financial profile, not the safety of Jewish students. This is why Columbia was all too happy to embrace a superficial progressive agenda while still disregarding Palestine, and this is why it will soon turn on you, too," he warned. "If there was any illusion left, it shattered last week when the board of trustees executed a historic maneuver to seize direct control of the presidency. Cutting out their middleman, the board appointed fellow trustee Claire Shipman to a position reserved for academic leadership. Who can still pretend this is an educational institution and not the 'Vichy on the Hudson'?"

"Faced with a movement for divestment they couldn't crush, your trustees opted to set fire to the institution they're entrusted with," Khalil continued. "It is incumbent upon each of you to reclaim the university and join the student movement to carry forward the work of the past year."

Khalil and his legal team are currently fighting the Trump administration's effort to remove him from the country. Earlier this month, a second federal judge rejected the Trump administration's request to transfer Khalil's case to Louisiana, a demand that civil liberties advocates decried as a ploy to "manipulate federal court jurisdiction" in order to receive a favorable ruling.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union—which is representing Khalil—stressed in an NBC Newsop-ed last week that Khalil "has never been accused, charged, or convicted of any crime."

"The Trump administration is sending a message to everyone in America: If you dare to disagree with the president, you will be punished," Lieberman wrote, alluding to a fight over federal funding. "Columbia was just the first target. Harvard and Princeton are now in danger of similar treatment. This is a full-scale attack on the system of free inquiry, discussion, and debate that is at the core of higher education, which is so crucial to the strength of our democracy."