A Review of Chapter 9, 10, 11 & 12

In Chapter 9, it describes the connections between the politics and the market in textile and apparel trade in America. Auggie Tantillo, who fought his whole life against the flooding of cheap clothing imports from other countries, opposed any free trade access to the American market. Though the size of his group kept shrinking and some even selected to stand on the other side, he never gave up and did his best to save jobs for American workers. With the efforts of him and his allies, the American administration had to compromise to set quotas and restrictions on imports of Chinese textile and apparel goods. Julia Hughes, with most economists, were on the opposite side and favored the free trade to the American market. However, the author saw that from a different point of view that politics played a big part role in the trade flows. American government protected domestic industries and jobs through all kinds of trade rules, which influenced the market in return. The Author also pointed out that America was not the only country which adopted the complicated trade policies to protect their own industries.

In Chapter 10, it discusses how the politics evolved to dominate over the apparel business in the world. Firstly the author explained three factors that made the role of governments still prevalent in the apparel business: the size of textile and apparel plants, the strength of industry alliances and the increasing public concerns about the trade in America. It was argued that most of the money were spent to keep the American textile industry silent so that the nation could continue to the free trade. That historical pattern lasted for nearly 60 years. Started from VER to STA, then to LTA, then to MFA, the American domestic textile industry benefited a lot. But after Reagan won the second term, the leverage over him was gone. Then a new alliance was formed from American textile and apparel industries to fight against the imports. It was called as “seed-to-shirt coalition.” But soon that coalition fell into different directions. Then ITCB rose to stand for the interests of textile and apparel exporters from developing countries. With long negotiations, the MFA was finally abandoned.

In Chapter 11, it discusses the adverse impacts and unintended consequences of the trade policies placed in the textile and apparel industries. Those policies undermined the competitiveness of textile and apparel companies in America because of the soaring cost of the production of textile products. Another adverse impact was the additional regulatory risks to the industry. The economic costs of protecting domestic industry would also be shared by the lower-income workers, whom the policy makers initially aimed to help. Also, the import quotas made many low-end manufacturers become high-end producers in pursuit of more profits. The trade barriers protected American apparel industry friends, which sometimes conflicted with the textile sector’s interests. With the textile and apparel quotas, many small developing countries had a chance to get into the American market. The trade barriers made companies in the world start a race for quotas.

In Chapter 12, it analyzes the politics behind the actions taken to China in textile and apparel imports. While Bush’s administration encouraged the free trade, they also made side payments to the domestic textile and apparel industries. Bush exchanged the promise to protect domestic textile industry with the textile Republicans to get a successful execution of CAFTA. Soon after that, the quotas on China was recovered through an agreement limiting China’s imports, which brought relief of pressure for many other developing countries. In 2008 presidential election, Obama also made a similar commitment, like all the other former presidents after World War II, to supporting the domestic textile industry. However, most of the quotas were lifted in China in 2009. It was only politics played by the government.

To conclude, the trade barriers indeed play a significant role in the protection of domestic industries in America. However, not only America but also many other rich countries set various trade barriers to protect their economy and industries. Even some developing countries also have built the trade barriers to prevent themselves from economic and environmental loss. The emerging of trade barriers become a more common phenomenon in the global trade today and is a by-product of the global development of economy, society, and technology. Thus, it is not correct by simply saying the trade barriers are good or bad. As the society develops fast, people become more aware of the safety and sustainable development of the environment. The industries involved in severe destruction threats to the environment and human’s health would be deserted step by step. Particularly, the trade barriers are also conducive to the reduction of sweatshops to some degree in the world. However, some shortcomings of the trade barriers shouldn’t be ignored, either. For example, the trade barriers for high technology and sophisticated equipment from the developed countries resulted in the imbalance of scientific development for some underdeveloped countries in the world. Particularly in Africa, the people there not only lack sufficient food, good medical care system, and specialists in various industries, they also require high technology and sophisticated equipment to support their further development. Besides that, overprotection of one’s economy and the environment through unilateral unreasonable trade barriers can also be a problem. That situation would probably happen with the rich and developed countries, who fear that the other countries would surpass them and threaten their political and economic positions in the world. Therefore, when we judge the trade barriers, we need to take into account the real situation.