The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade. New Preface and Epilogue with Updates on Economic Issues and Main Characters, 2nd Edition

10Dogs Snarling TogetherHow Politics Came to Rule the Global Apparel Trade

How did the United States—as the self-anointed free trade champion of the universe—end up with such a dauntingly complex and downright silly mass of barriers to the import of T-shirts? Why, in an era of progressive trade liberalization and increasing deference to the market mechanism, has the role of politics remained so pervasive in this industry?

The first factor to explain the dominance of politics in the trade is the size of the textile and apparel manufacturing base, even today. While textile and apparel employment in the United States peaked shortly after World War II at approximately 2.5 million workers, the industries in 2008 employed about 500,000 people, which accounts for about 4 percent of manufacturing employment.¹ Given the size of the employment base, the unrelenting job losses related to the global race to the bottom have strengthened the political voice of the industry, as the ‘‘groans of the weavers'’ have become both louder and more sophisticated. Winning industries do not groan, and losing industries' groans become louder with the extent of their misfortune. The U.S. textile industry felt the first serious threat from imports immediately after World War II, and foreign competition since that time has been growing steadily and sometimes exponentially, which has led to compensating cries for help from Washington.

Yet the withering of America's competitive position in these industries ...