Textile and garment production accounts for about 80 percent of exports in Bangladesh and the industry has been rebuilding after it was hit hard in a student-led revolution that toppled the government last year.
US President Donald Trump hit Bangladesh with biting new tariffs of 37 percent on Wednesday, hiking duties from the previous 16 percent on cotton products.
Reports of the swift biting impact come as interim leader Muhammad Yunus pleaded with Trump to "postpone the application of US reciprocal tariff measures", the government said in a statement.
Yunus wrote to Trump to ask for "three months to allow the interim government to smoothly implement its initiative to substantially increase US exports to Bangladesh", the statement added.
Those products include "cotton, wheat, corn and soybean which will offer benefits to US farmers", it read.
"Bangladesh will take all necessary actions to fully support your trade agenda," Yunus told Trump, according to the statement.
Manufacturers said the impact had been near immediate.
Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahman, managing director of Essensor Footwear and Leather Products, said he received a letter from one of his buyers requesting a shipment halt.
"My buyer asked me to stop a shipment of leather goods -- including bags, belts, and wallets -- worth $300,000 on Sunday," Rahman told AFP.