ISDS Case Map
textiles | garments
Day and night, workers at the port of Quetzal on Guatemala's Pacific coast load fruit from surrounding plantations and clothing stitched in local factories onto freighters bound for Long Beach, Calif., a flow of goods that has swelled since a Central American trade agreement with the United States took force last year.
How time flies! It seems like yesterday when Malawi was celebrating the extension of its free market access to the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) for textiles but now the country only has 25 days before the deal expires.
A free trade agreement with the US will not guarantee a competitive advantage for Sri Lankan garments in the US, says a US trade law specialist.
Foreign direct investments are shifting back to Malaysia from China, at least in the textile industry, with some multinationals planning to relocate their operations ahead of the signing of the Malaysia-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
The recent approval of a five-year extension of permission to use foreign fabrics in Africa's duty-free clothing exports to the US is seen by trade experts in Washington as helping to stabilise East Africa's textile industries. But the action last week by the US Congress is unlikely to reverse the downward trend in Kenya and Uganda's apparel sales to the American market.
A trade preference bill included in one of the last bits of legislation passed before the end of the 109th congressional session Dec. 9 is being hailed as having the potential to help start a turnaround in the bedraggled economy of the Caribbean nation of Haiti.
The Jordan-United States free-trade agreement was supposed to be a labor-rights model. It has been a disaster -- 'globalization' at its worst.
In a move that is strongly opposed by US textile manufacturers, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has introduced legislation that will make major changes in the textile provisions of two trade agreements and also promote investments in African facilities by US companies.
The US Trade Representative has been urged by the largest US labor organization and textile group to file a complaint against Jordan for its failure to check companies from exploiting their laborers and subsequently cheating them on wages. Since the US-Jordan FTA was signed between the two nations in December 2001, this is the first time any US business group has come together with labor demanding action under the treaty.
This is the first time that a business association has formally joined in filing a worker rights case under a trade agreement. The groups called on the Bush Administration to initiate dispute settlement proceedings under the FTA that would halt gross workers' rights violations occurring in Jordan.
