In Mali the famous Blue Men of the Sahara wear
traditional
cotton robes -but the country’s impoverished cotton
farms
face unfair competition from subsidized American
producers.
Indeed a problem, the US cotton subsidies. As they note,
the WTO, that guardian of the free trade rules, has just
ruled them illegal and they’llhave to go. This is less of
an argument against free trade and moreof one in
favour of it. Removing the subsidies that distort it will
make both the Malian farmers and the consumers better
off, at the expense of some US cotton farmers. So far the
institutions of free trade andglobalisation seem to be
working.
In Uganda markets are full of second-hand clothes
donated to charities in the rich countries – clothes
which are
desperately needed but help prevent the
textile industry recovering
fromthe Idi Amin days.
? Slightly odd, there seems to be some insistence that
every country should have a textile industry. Why?
Imports are the benefit that people and countries get
from trade, if Uganda does not have to use its limited
resources to make clothes, those resources can
be used to do something else. They are made richer by
getting cheap clothes and not building a textiles industry.
In Peru alpaca farmers remain mired in
poverty while the West fails to provide the
technological help to rescue theindustry
from decline.
The argument runs that Peruvian breeders have
been bad at breeding, while other nations have
proved better at it, providing higher quality wool.
If you’re bad at something this is usually judged to
be a sign that you should be doing something
else.
In Cambodia garment workers risk destitution
as newtrade rules threaten a Race to the Bottom
over labour standards.
They mention that the rules changed in Jan 2005,
but not why theychanged. We had for decades
the Multi-Fibre agreements whichforced a system
of quotas onto all exports and imports. It was
as bad as CAP in its effects on poverty in the Third
World and we’re well rid of it, just as we will
celebrate when CAP dies the death. There’s also
mention that the trade will move from Cambodia to
China….that may well happen, but it’s hard to believe,
as they say, that it is part of a race to the bottom.
Looking at GDP per capita figures, Cambodia’s $1,500
or so is dwarfed byChina’s $4,500 or so. Moving to a
higher cost country reallydoesn’t look like a race to
the bottom.
No, null points I think. |
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