A new research report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), post pandemic recovery in the Asian garment will be dominated by three possible scenarios; repeat, regain and renegotiate. As per the report ‘The post-COVID-19 garment industry in Asia’, the ‘repeat’ scenario will have unequal impact on the workers, particularly women. While some workers will benefit from consolidation and automation, others will be left unemployed or in low-quality jobs. Decent work deficits will persist in large swathes of the industry.

The ‘regain’ scenario will accelerate pre-crisis trends and the further bifurcate the industry, with both positive and negative connotations for decent work. The ‘renegotiate’ scenario will include introduction of wide-ranging and deliberate reforms that reimagine the business model, with social and environmental sustainability assuming an integrated and integral role at its core.

Global garment trade faced a sharp decline in the first half of 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis. Imports from some of the main global consumer markets for garments declined sharply. Garment exports of some garment-producing countries plunged by as much as 70 per cent, says the report Brands are also consolidating their global supplier bases by concentrating on fewer countries, it adds.