the timing suggests that this policy was one of the Clinton administration,
though of course Clinton/Gore fans could argue that Bush will do worse.
>COMMERCE DEPARTMENT LETS U.S. RETAILERS' USE
>BURMESE MILITARY REGIME TO
>SKIRT US IMPORT QUOTAS
>
>US Firms Provide Revenue for World's Leading Human
>Rights Violator
>
>State Dept. Cable Names Labels Including
>K-Mart, Fila, Arrow Golf, & Jordache
>
>US Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) will release today a US State Department
>"unclassified" cable describing how US retailers have used the military
>dictatorship in Burma to circumvent US worldwide import quotas on apparel.
>Acting on a tip from well-known anti-sweatshop advocate Charles Kernaghan,
>Executive Director of the National Labor Committee for Human Rights (NLC),
>Harkin obtained a copy of the document from the State Department nearly
>four months after his initial inquiry was rebuffed.
>
>"Here we are coddling brutal dictators while thousands of apparel jobs are
>being lost in this country. Meanwhile, Burmese factories are working round
>the clock, seven days a week, paying workers as little as 7 cents an hour,
>$3.23 for a 48-hour work week, and some of the profits go right into the
>pockets of the generals. And they have nearly unlimited access to the US
>market.," said Kernaghan.
>
>"Most Americans already think we have tough sanctions in place with Burma,
>but this cable makes clear that our current sanctions policy is more
>bluster than bite. As a result, many brand-name U.S. apparel companies are
>importing more and more of their clothes from the Burmese gulag. It is
>outrageous that part of the $403 million from American apparel imports
>last year alone went into the coffers of Burma's brutal military regime,
>so I will introduce legislation soon to ban all textile and apparel
>imports from that country," said Harkin.
>
>"You can't do business in Burma without directly financing the military's
>purchase of weapons used to deny its citizens' basic rights. The State
>Department confirms this every year. Virtually all foreign companies must
>enter into joint ventures with the military government's state-owned
>enterprises. This is one way, in addition to the heroin trade, that the
>generals keep their regime afloat. That's why Levi Strauss and a long list
>of other US retailers pulled out years ago," said Simon Billenness, who
>follows developments in US Burma policy as a senior analyst at Trillium
>Asset Management in Boston.
>
>A cable from the US diplomatic outpost in Rangoon, Burma's capital, to the
>US State Department, in July, 2000 explains "Garment manufacturers from
>those countries [Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan, in joint ventures with the
>Government of Burma] subcontract orders to the Burmese factories that
>cannot be filled under their own US import quotas." [Available by fax on
>request]
>
>According to Kernaghan, there is no bi-lateral trade agreement with Burma.
>The US government, unilaterally, sets apparel import quotas through the
>Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA). The
>Committee is comprised of the Departments of Commerce, State, Labor,
>Treasury, and the Office of the US Trade Representative. The Committee is
>chaired by the Commerce Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for
>Textiles, Apparel and Consumer Goods Industries.
>
>The US Commerce Department's Office of Textile and Apparel has established
>86 categories of clothing for purposes of setting import quotas. For
>Burma, the Office set no quotas whatsoever for 74 of these categories
>including outerwear, knit shirts, sweaters, dresses, and underwear, among
>many others.
>
>In the year 2000, apparel imports from Burma soared 118% over the previous
>year, growing from $185 million in 1999 to $403.7 million in 2000. In
>2000, Burmese apparel factories, joint ventures between Korean, Taiwanese,
>or Hong Kong investors and Burmese government-controlled companies,
>shipped 166 million garments to the US.
>
>Following the 1997 US imposition of a ban on all new investment in Burma
>based on continued reports of political repression and forced labor,
>apparel imports from Burma grew 372%, rising from $85.6 million in 1997 to
>$403.7 billion in 2000.
>
>A review of the most recent shipping data for November and December, 2000
>shows retailers not mentioned in the July, 2000 State Department cable
>importing from Burma: Kasper ASL Ltd., Marshall's Department Stores, TJ
>Maxx, and Williams-Sonoma.
>
>After Kernaghan and the NLC released a study, reported in the New York
>Times (12/19/00), citing the Pentagon's Army/Air Force Exchange Service
>and several retailers for importing clothing made in Burma, the Pentagon,
>Kenneth Cole, and Wal-Mart announced their decisions to cease doing
>business in Burma. A visit to Kenneth Cole's flagship store on Fifth
>Avenue at Rockefeller Center in New York City, on Wednesday, February
>28th, however, turned up numerous sweater styles made in Burma.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
