Diane Elson

Introduction

how has this industry contributed to the creation of the Third World?

How much of a competitive mechanized clothing industry is there?

To what extent do the citizens of the country benefit? (local or foreign owned?)

What benefits to the workers?

What benefit to the country itself?

Can other countries take advantage of it as a road to development?

Global Distribution of Textiles and Clothing Production and Exports

p. 190 -- large increase in production in the South

p. 191 -- production capacity up dramatically and new technologies in the asian NICs

Only the east asian countries are really challenging the developed countries

they would have exported more were it not for trade quotas

p. 192 -- the MFA has encouraged a regional fabric market in Europe

The Global Organization of The Textiles and Clothing Industry

p. 195 -- the industry is far less concentrated in the hands of TNCs than the auto industry

p. 196 -- not mostly direct foreign investment, mostly just encouraging growth of these foreign industries

p. 198 -- TNCs have played little rle in the development of the textile industry in South Korea and Bangladesh

South Korea: the government used incentives to encourage indigenous investment in textiles

p. 199 -- government provided substantial subsidies but expected the firms to meet tight export requirements

wage prices went up in Korea and the MFA prevented expansion -- triangle trade patterns

Bangladesh mostly rural hand looms, exports up, but still has to import all the raw materials -- underdeveloped

p. 201 -- this encouraged the NICs to invest there, but then the MFA was expanded to include Bangladesh as well

The Global Distribution of Employment in the Textile and Clothing Idustry

in the developed economies the number of people working in textiles has gone way down with cheap offshore labour and improved technology

largest reason is increase in productivity

p. 204 -- the textiles industry abuses young children and women

of course that is just from a Western perspective

in Asia the wages are competitive

small sweat-shops are the worst because their employees can’t organize and the labour laws are not enforced

benefits the greatest in rapid development and in large factories where workers can organize themselves

Some Limits to the Development of the Textiles and Clothing Industry in Developing Countries

The Multi Fiber Agreement

The MFA will go away with time, but the first world still has the technology advantage

This will require substantial investments by the countries to keep competitive -- the Asian NICs can, but no one else

the market will be much harder for new players to enter