The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, the Power, and Politics of World Trade – Essay – Olivier Manzardo
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The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, the Power, and Politics of World Trade
Erasmus Student Olivier Manzardo Seminar: Die Handelspolitik der Vereinigten Staaten Dozent: Tobias Leeg The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: an Economist examines the Markets, the Power, and Politics of World Trade (Wiley 2015 Second Edition)Pietra Rivoli, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of BusinessSynopsis and Analysis The book is about textiles, which are kind of symbolic of everything thats good and bad about globalization and contains a whole range of anecdotes, insights and ironies that are very useful to understand the debate between proponents and opponents of free trade, of protectionism and the relationship between wealthy and poor nations.In the US and also in Europe in the last 20 years, the apparel industry has been at the center of the globalization debate because people are very worried about the very poor labor conditions in the so- called sweatshops where apparel is made especially in Asia.In The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy Pietra Rivoli, an Economist, analyzes the complexities of global economy through the lens of cotton production wrapped in the journey of a T-shirt. The book is written in an interesting and effective manner to reach its goal of educating about the global economy.The book is a biography of a particular cotton T-shirt that the author bought a few years before in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for 6 $. The story begins with Rivoli watching a group of students gathering at the centerpiece of Georgetown University to demonstrate against the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the global working conditions as a result of free trade. The crowd, the author noticed, had “a moral certainty, a unity of purpose” that permitted it to distinguish black from white and good from evil “with perfect clarity.” A young woman confronted the crowd with a set of questions: “Who made your T-shirt? Was it a child in Vietnam? Or a young girl from India earning 18 cents per hour? Did you know that she lives 12 to a room? That she shares her bed and has only gruel to eat?” Taking these questions very seriously, Rivoli starts a journey to discover not just who manufactures T-shirts but also who is involved in each step of the supply chain.
The T-shirt was probably born around Lubbock, Texas. West Texas is the biggest producer of cotton in the United States. Its the most important cotton-growing region. And if one takes that area around Lubbock all by itself, it would be the eighth-biggest cotton producer in the world. The history of the American cotton industry is a history of various efforts to shield cotton growers from markets, and in particular, to shield them from competitive labor markets through slavery, sharecropping, through company towns, through the bracero program of guest workers. And also, ofcourse, shielding them from supply and demand through agricultural subsidies that account for asignificant fraction of cotton growers current revenues. Textile and apparel producers likewise have been seeking protection from market forces, in particular foreign competition, since before the Industrial Revolution. Even today, Texas owes much of its success to factors outside the “free market,” like universities and other institutions that have helped to integrate ginning, packaging and shipping, and programs to familiarize farmers with technology. Most of all, American farmers benefit from government subsidies, whose effect is to put out of the picture lower-cost cotton from poor nations of West Africa. If one thinks that these subsidies amount to more than the US entire development aid budget for the continent of Africa one can argue the Chinese are not alone in departing from free and unrestricted competition. Once produced the cotton was shipped—cotton is shipped in bales of about 500 pounds—to Shanghai, China. China is Americas biggest customer, biggest importer of raw cotton. And there the cotton was spun into yarn, and the yarn was knit into cloth, and the T-shirt was cut into pieces and sewn back together and so forth. So thats where the cotton was transformed, essentially from plant into clothing.The T-shirt then came back into the United States as an import as part of the wave of imports of textiles and clothing thats coming from China into the United States, and thats where the author bought it. But more than the geographical journey back from China to the United States, what the author is looking at in the book is the trade policy and the structures that the US  have had in place that govern how clothing gets from one place to another. So, really, the T-shirt is traveling through a web of trade policy (tariffs, quotas, barriers to the import to protect the American workforce in the apparel industry, trade agreements), and thats one of the middle sections of the book in which the author explains how the US domestic market of textile finished goods has been one of the most protected market in the world. “The T-shirt journey from China to the United States has been engineered by a web of highly political constraints on markets, in which both rich- and poor-country producers seek political protection from markets, and especially from the China threat.”
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“The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, the Power, and Politics of World Trade” EssaysForStudent.com. 03 2017. 2017. 03 2017 < "The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, the Power, and Politics of World Trade." EssaysForStudent.com. EssaysForStudent.com, 03 2017. Web. 03 2017. < "The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, the Power, and Politics of World Trade." EssaysForStudent.com. 03, 2017. Accessed 03, 2017. Essay Preview By: Olivier Manzardo Submitted: March 15, 2017 Essay Length: 2,710 Words / 11 Pages Paper type: Essay Views: 716 Report this essay Tweet Related Essays Canada in the Global Economy Over the past few years, Canada’s economy has done comparatively well and has demonstrated some resilience to the fluctuating global economy. However, Canada remains 1,439 Words  |  6 Pages The Effects of Deregulation on Global Economy Introduction Thesis: Deregulation has more negative effects on global economy than positive. Deregulation, this word is heard on the news, economists use this word quite 1,627 Words  |  7 Pages Changes in the Global Economy The European union consists of 15 countries, which were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United 456 Words  |  2 Pages Global Economy How can a company from an emerging economy manage to make waves in global business? Ask Embraer. The Brazilian firm also known as Empresa Brasileira 960 Words  |  4 Pages Similar Topics Japanese Economy Begin Experience Major Power Play Global Economy Get Access to 89,000+ Essays and Term Papers Join 209,000+ Other Students High Quality Essays and Documents Sign up © 2008–2020 EssaysForStudent.comFree Essays, Book Reports, Term Papers and Research Papers Essays Sign up Sign in Contact us Site Map Privacy Policy Terms of Service Facebook Twitter