W H A T D O E S T-S H I R T S U G G E S T W O U L D HAPPEN TO COTTON FARMERS IN

WEST AFRICA IF UNITED STATES SUBSIDIES TO COTTON FARMERS

CEASED? WHY?

T-shirt states that even if this occurs, there is no certainty this

makes a high impact gain for farmers in places like Africa or
similar ones in other poor regions on the world, this is because
we have learned that probably subsidies are not the priority for
growers in such countries, we have read that when these
subsidies are created, they probably does not arrive to the
right people due to the lacks in the government and institutions

HOW A ND IN WHAT WAYS(S) IS THE UNITED STATES’ GOVERNMENT

INVOLVED IN COTTON FARMING?

The support of the government occurred by supporting the

research in technology and supporting farmers with funding,
technical, and business assistance through the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA). We can found several
evidences of how universities helped to technify the agriculture
and especially when it comes related with cotton

Political support has been available too; a clear example is the

Bracero program, creating a full scenario for the temporary
workers including all aspects of the logistic to bring workers
and ensure they leave the country as well

Historically speaking, government has been supporting risks

using safety risk founds when the price fall dawn and at the
same time trying to stabilizing commodity prices.

One of the biggest talents of the cotton growers have been

their inventive and ability to take advantage of any minimal
situation, government looks like a good observer of this
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 advantage, particularly speaking government has supported
growers to figure out some profits in the scrap or garbage
resulting of cotton

One of the biggest talents of the cotton growers have been

their inventive and ability to take advantage of any minimal
situation, government looks like a good observer of this
advantage; government has also supported growers to figure
out some profits in the garbage resulting of cotton

Another special involvement of the government in this sector is

the 2002 Farm Bill and all its previous bills, this sector enjoys
of privileges that other sector does not have like the Crop
Disaster Program that reimburses farmers for losses due to
unusual situations, in one hand Farm Loan Programs provided
financing to growers who are unable to obtain credit from
private sources, in the other hand, cotton farmers, enjoys of
good percentage of federal support

Additionally to all these benefits I think the ACRE program is

even more helpful for growers because it not only offers
protection against falling prices but offers the choice to opt for
protection against declines in revenues from falling crop yields,
all this examples evidence a government that is very suitable
to support this agro industry

HOW HAVE AMERICAN COTTON FARMERS SINCE THE BEGINNING AVOIDED

THE LABOR MARKET?

Slavery was early used to develop cotton production and is

well recognized as the first “public policy” to protect cotton
growers. Slavery showed a path to avoid the competitive labor
market and enabled growers to cultivate larger acreage

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 The Bracero program in the last century is another example of
avoiding competence and obtains a preferential work force

DO CHILDREN HAVE FOND OF WORKING ON COTTON FARMS? EXPLAIN.

I would say that rather than have fond, have been conformed
and habituated to work on cotton farms due to a set of
inappropriate circumstances. Growers found in children and
women under desperation and no alternatives an extraordinary
work force more easily to undergo sever bodily fatigue;
children have been utilized by farmers on their own benefit

This sort of circumstances: desperation, lack of opportunities

and poverty prepares the scenario to create a codependence
between employers and workers; this is clearly not what can
call a fair productive relationship

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T-S H I R T PAINTS A RATHER UNPLEASANT PICTURE OF WORKING CONDITIONS
FOR CHILDREN A ND WOMEN IN BRITISH TEXTILE MILLS. WHAT DID
THESE WORKING CONDITIONS EVENTUALLY SECURE FOR FUTURE
GENERATIONS OF TEXTILE WORKERS AND THE BRITISH ECONOMY?

These working conditions created in America a pressure from

the New England industrialists to legislate against the trend of
south regions to lay their competitive advantage in their non
fair working and hiring conditions.

This pressure eventually created the bases for today’s global

labor standards, first in US, England, Europe and the rest of
the world.

These revolutionary changes dropped the British competitive

advantage placing the south as the main supplier of cotton in
Asia. Even in our days this situation keeps present

WHY DOES CHINA POINT OUT THAT AMERICA’S INDUSTRIAL MIGHT BEGAN
WITH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY VIOLATIONS?

Because of an act of industrial piracy performed by Francis

Cabot Lowell in 1810 in a family travel to England

WHAT IS HUKOU, HOW DID IT COME ABOUT, AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO
THE CHINESE TEXTILE INDUSTRY AND THE WOMEN IN THESE
FACTORIES. WHY DOES THE US AFL-CIO SAY THAT HUKOU IS
EXPLOITIVE AND CONSTITUTES AN UNFAIR TRADE ADVANTAGE FOR
CHINA?

Literally speaking hukou is a place of household, is other ways

is some kind of social organization, like race in America, class
in England or caste in India, in terms of this book and china
industry hukou is a competitive advantage

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 In practice, hukou it’s a segregation system to exploit workers,
the hukou system has been analyzed from different experts
and their analysis show important facts to evidently label this
system as an inhuman labor system

The most of the workers in china are migrant workers in their

own country with litigation to bring their families to the city of
their working place, few of them have low chances of renting
and when they can, those conditions are really inhuman and
unhealthy

Migrant workers in china work more hours per week and they
receive lower wages, it has all the characteristics of an over
exploited working class created to avoid competitively

T- S H I R T SAYS THAT: “OF ALL THE RALLYING CRIES OF THE ANTI-

GLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT, THE CALL TO STOP THE RACE TO THE
BOTTOM IS BOTH THE SCARIEST AND THE MOST NONSENSICAL,
ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES FROM RICH COUNTRY ACTIVISTS WHO OWE
THEIR OWN PROSPERITY TO THE VERY RACE THEY WISH TO HALT FOR
O T H E R S ”.
EXPLAIN THROUGH COUNTRY EXAMPLES WHAT IS MEANT BY
THIS QUOTE.

There are activist in England, Japan and US opposed to the

anti globalization movement. All these countries have a wealth
based in their multinational commerce activities and plenty
support to the race to the bottom.

T-S H I R T SAYS THAT: “I N A LARGER SENSE, HOWEVER, GLOBAL CAPITALISM

A ND LABOR ACTIVISM ARE NOT ENEMIES BUT ARE INSTEAD
COOPERATORS, HOWEVER UNWITTING, IN IMPROVING HUMAN
CONDITION. AS MUCH AS THE CEO S WOULD LIKE TO SILENCE THE
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 ACTIVISTS AND ACTIVISTS WOULD LIKE TO SILENCE THE
CORPORATIONS, THE FACT IS THAT THE TWO SIDES NEED EACH
O T H E R ….” EXPLAIN

I see a sharp entrepreneurial push from the corporations

looking for better profits, lowering costs and obtain more for
their wages, by the other hand, activists work confronting all
aspects of those global operations, both are working in their
side, but are they enemies at all? I don’t think so, I see a
additional function in areas like health and safety legislation for
the protection of workers, and ultimately the efforts have been
focused to ergonomics

I agree with the point that this co existence can be used in a

positive sense for several sides of the real world

WHAT DOES THE MFA STAND FOR?

Stands for “Multi Fiber Agreement”

WHAT MIGHT BE THE CAMBODIAN ADVANTAGE FOR MAINTAINING A NICHE

IN THE PRODUCTION OF CLOTHING IN THE ABSENCE OF THE US
REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT?

Probably none, once the regulatory environment gets released

the opportunity of Camboya will be minimum against the
China's potential to absorb any demand from U.S. or any other
developed countries

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IN THE US REGULATORY REGIME, WHAT ARE THE QUOTAS AND WHAT AREA
THE RESULTS OF THE QUOTAS?

The quotas are the limitation of volumes of imports from some countries, and
literally speaking they are quantitative limits to imported goods.

The quotas have been coming, changing, leaving and coming again, trying to
protect the domestic industries, textile in this case of analysis, however their real
result is to became a delayer of the evolution of the industry, new skills and
possibilities to move on from traditional jobs in textile mill, quotas have made
longer the painful process to evolve to new markets for the last 60 years instead to
really create competitiveness

HOW HAS US PROTECTIONISM INCREASED US COSTS AND BY HOW MUCH?

(S E L E C T ONE MEASURE)

These costs have been estimated by several analysts with a

common denominator: high scale cost impact. This cost goes
from the economic cost to the consumer cost, additionally
there is a regression tax effect and an “upgrading effect”
(countries limited by quotas focus their volumes in high-end
products instead of low-end products)

The book handles a wide variety of numerical amounts;

perhaps one of the most important ones is the cost of
protecting an apparel job, analyst like Hufbauer and Elliott
speak of $138K USD per year for each job position preserved.
This is much more than the average income for an apparel
and textile worker.

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WHY DO MAJOR US APPAREL FIRMS OPPOSE THE US PROTECTIONISM?

Because there were two kinds of firms in the business, those

who continued producing apparel in America, these firms
faced difficulties to access to cheaper and more fashionable
foreign fabrics, due to the difficulty created by the limitations to
access those materials is that the companies declined to
support trade restrictions

By the other hand, there were other firms that their strategy
was focused to obtain clothing from outside of United States,
their fundament to decide this was based in increased quality
and pricing competitiveness of Asian producers

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WHY IS CONGRESS NOT UP TO THE TASK OF FORMULATING NATIONAL
TRADE POLICY?

In synthesis: because members of the congress are protecting

their election or reelection interests, they're putting their own
interests above the interests that are suitable to the nation.

Congress men are taking populist posture even when they are
not willing to sign a bill against free trade, ironically true

THE AUTHOR REFERS TO THE FINAL STAGE OF LIFE IN HER T-SHIRT AS THE
POINT WHEN SHE THROWS IT INTO A SALVATION ARMY BIN.SHE SAYS
THAT “IT IS ONLY IN THIS FINAL STAGE OF LIFE THAT THE T-SHIRT
WILL MEET A REAL MARKET. WHAT MARKET IS THIS? HOW DOES IT
FUNCTION? WHY DOES IT WORK? WHO ARE THE PARTIES IN THIS
MARKET?

The market of the castoffs is a controversial, complex and

dynamic global industry. Between 1995 and 2007 this is
industry exported nearly 9 billion pounds of used clothing

The U.S. textile recycling industry consists of thousands of

small family businesses, they sources buying clothing from
charity, pricing has its owns rules based in the origin and also
seasonal criteria

Another side of this snowflake industry is related with

organizations that because of their name can pick up the best
of the castoffs; these organizations are Goodwill and the
Salvation Army

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 The industry has evolution from a sorting business to a mining
operation, where the opportunity of gain is all about of sorting
clothing carefully, but quickly, and allocates it where they can
be sold at the best possible price

The parties involved are rich people seeing garbage in their

clothing, charity associations, private companies and
customers, these costumers could be countries in east
Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America

WHY DOES THE UNITED STATES HAVE A COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE IN

CAST OUT T-SHIRTS?

Because Americans buys more than any other country in the

world, the constantly falling prices in clothing and helps to
accelerate this trend and by consequence there is more raw
materials for this industry of castoff. So is easy to anticipate
that this industry will keep in growth

It looks like a big story to tell, consumers getting new stuff

every year at better price because a trade barriers are
disappearing, after all this classic industry cycle we found a
market waiting to mining this product, find valuable items for
other customers and industries. All this makes a great
business scenario

This industry is a good example of comparative advantage

because United States has the ability to obtain gains at the
lowest opportunity cost than even China can achieve. Why?
Because China has a limited tradition of charity and average
income still too low to generate large volumes of castoffs

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 The comparative advantage of United States clothing recyclers
lies in America’s wealth and consumerism (I will include an
American tradition of giving and support)

ED STUBIN IS KEEPING A WATCHFUL EYE ON CHINA. AT PRESENT CHINA

IS NOT A REAL PLAYER IN THE CAST OFF CLOTHING MARKET. HOW
DOES STUBIN FEAR CHINA MAY ENTER THIS MARKET AND BECOME A
MAJOR PLAYER?

Some interesting facts makes Ed to think about this possibility,

the high commercial deficit of United States with China and the
low amount of merchandise from US to China has caused a
falling in shipping costs from US to China in first place, and
second, a possible opening of Chinese borders in the Export
Processing Zones (EPZs) to used clothing could put China in
serious competence

If this opening occurs with the current prices of shipping,

Chinese companies could buy used clothing by bulk from
major suppliers in US —Goodwill and the Salvation Army—
and sort it in their EPZ at a fraction of the labor cost in
America, similar what is actually happening in other industries
where labor cost is an advantage for China

The complexity associated to this challenge is not too high, the

possibility exists and there is evidence of a similar situation
with sorting clothing in India right now. Probably Ed has a point
and in the near future we can observe China in this market

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