"Sri Lanka apparel exporters locked out of US tariff refund windfall", 4 September 2026

Sri Lanka’s apparel manufacturing sector is grappling with sharply compressed order horizons from American buyers alongside virtually zero financial relief from tariff refunds, even as the same US court ruling that unlocked those refunds has delivered a windfall to the American brands they supply, according to the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF).

...JAAF Secretary General Yohan Lawrence said international buyers in the United States...have significantly altered their procurement strategies. Buyers are now trying to commit to as little as possible, reducing typical order horizons from six to eight months down to just three, a shift Lawrence attributed to prolonged volatility in US tariff classifications and buyers’ desire to preserve maximum flexibility over what they purchase...

He noted that shorter buyer commitments prevent local garment manufacturers and fabric mills...from securing raw materials ahead of time or planning long-term production schedules. Apparel manufacturers operate on an open costing framework...set largely by the brand rather than negotiated by the factory. That leaves virtually no scope to build in buffers or capitalise on bulk purchasing. Lawrence said manufacturers are increasingly compelled to sacrifice margin simply to keep factories running at full capacity...

...local exporters have seen no financial recovery from the tariffs previously levied under contested US trade policy. The initial US reciprocal tariff...was ultimately ruled unlawful by the US Supreme Court. That triggered domestic expectations of refunds flowing back into the export sector, but Lawrence was pessimistic about local manufacturers seeing any of it...

“No, I don’t think we’ve seen anything of any [refunds], despite the fact that when the tariffs came on there was a conversation that said, ‘Hey guys, we have to pay an extra 10 percent, we’ll pay five, we need you to cover the five.’ The flow back of that has been, shall we say, very slow.”...

Between them, [Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, PVH and Nike] alone have recovered well over a billion dollars. By Lawrence’s account, that money has gone straight into US brands’ reported margins and per-share earnings rather than back down the supply chain to the manufacturers who originally absorbed the cost...