WP,pg1: China Bristles at Textile Trade Backlash

[DeepModem Mom]

China Bristles at Textile Trade Backlash
Calls for Limits on Exports Seen as Unfair Restriction in Global Market

By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 5, 2005; Page A01


....Chinese officials argue that their country is the scapegoat for the inevitable demise of American manufacturing: If American closets were not full of Chinese-made clothes, they would instead be occupied by goods from some other developing country.

Despite a two-thirds jump in overall shipments of textiles and clothes from China since quotas were lifted at the beginning of the year, imports from all countries have climbed by only 15 percent, and those from Mexico, South Korea and the Philippines have dropped, according to the foreign trade division of the U.S. Census Bureau. In other words, much of the increased Chinese production is coming not at the expense of American producers, but from those in other countries.

The head of global procurement for Wal-Mart, which last year bought more than $1.5 billion worth of apparel in China, scoffed at the notion that American jobs are at risk because of increased Chinese clothing imports. "The only apparel that's left in the U.S. is sweatshops in Chinatown," the procurement chief, Andrew Tsuei, said during an interview last year.

(Li Suiming's) factory lends some credence to claims that China's textile boom is driven in part by labor exploitation. He said seamstresses earn about $125 per month and work nine hours per day, with overtime very rare and always paid. But four seamstresses, all of whom spoke on the condition that they not be identified, said they were paid about $75 per month and must routinely work 12 hours per day without overtime compensation. No air conditioners cut the furnace-like summer heat.

Still, the very existence of Li's venture and thousands of other private factories together undercut one of the key arguments for protectionism -- that the textile trade in China remains in the clutches of a Communist Party-run state....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/04/AR2005050402120.html