Disaster in Bangladesh: The Collapse of the Rana Plaza Building

In continuation, the United States federal government should enforce legislation to restrict outsourcing to protect human rights of foreign laborers. Today, American citizens simply cannot know the working conditions of the factories that make the products they buy. This is hugely beneficial for corporations who want to keep us ignorant of their activities. We know about extreme incidents such as the Rana Plaza collapse that capture the world’s attention, however briefly, or when workers get so fed up with the conditions that they strike long enough and loud enough to get the Western world’s attention. But the day-to-day disasters that maim or kill a single worker or the accumulation of lead in workers’ bodies—those go almost completely unreported.

On the 24th of April 2013, a tragedy occurred in Dhaka, Bangladesh, resulting in the deaths of more than 1000 people and the destruction of a nine-story garment factory “Rana Plaza” (Manik& Yardley, n.d.,). However, the unsatisfactory condition of the building was known to employees. The day before the tragedy, several cracks were noticed, yet the owner of the factory ignored the warning by police to suspend the factory. In addition, workers were physically intimidated which shows, illustrating the power of society and the desperation of financial condition as individuals (Hossain, 2013). 80% of the workers at the Rana Plaza were female; this was because their labor was the cheapest in the world, with the minimum income BDT being 3000 taka per month (the equivalent of 37 Australian dollars) (Burke, 2013). This industry represented the international fashion labels in Europe, America, cosmopolitanism and progressive brands such as Benetton etc. Most of the factory’s textile products were internationally exported, earning foreign currency and allowing it to become the largest industry in Bangladesh. The “Rana Plaza” was one of the main industry, which maintained the economy and society as individuals in Bangladesh. The power of capital at the Bangladesh level is the arrangement of dominance transnational businesses at the global level, which is a smaller rate of powerful

From a perilous beginning, Bangladesh has attained notable advancements in economic and social development in about four decades. Since it won its independent in 1971 following a bloody war, many, in the international community were doubtful about the country’s long-term economic sustainability. Some observers predicted a state of continuing aid dependency, while others believed if a country with such enormous and innumerable development problems as Bangladesh could make strides in development, then possibly other developing countries could as

Furthermore, make minimum safety standards. Improving health and safety conditions would cause a greater good than harm. In 1988, after nationwide survey by more than one hundred state and federal officials, The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) identified the garment, restaurant, and meat-processing industries as those most frequently considered sweatshop industries. These three have the most widespread problems, committing multiple violations of labor laws and safety regulations (Foo 2180). For example, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911. Their conditions were horrible. Women stitching up clothes with over forty one workers, 125 of them women and children who were mostly immigrants. Being burned to death most jumped out windows in the building. This terrible tragedy was the first out of many accidents. There should have enforcement of laws to ensure that these incidents are not repeated again (Rosen 1). Also, if they are

• The enormous surplus of labor in China imperils workers worldwide as international competition puts incessant downward pressure on wages and working conditions, leading the apparel and textile industries to favor the cheapest and most Draconian producers.

What’s important to examine is that before the Triangle Factory Fire is that that casualties from unsafe conditions were reported and expressed as a concern before. Where was the outrage that pushed for safer working conditions? The answer to that is that there were many times that people were upset with such conditions.

The relevance of this book can be measured by its ability to speak to the everyday individual, who may or may not know anything about economics, and plant the seed toward global economic education. It provides a keen social awareness to people who may or may not ordinarily care about international economics and can have an eye-opening effect toward what really happens in the textile industry.

Following World War II, economic policies were marked by two major trends. On one hand, industrialized economies gradually removed trade barriers. These policies were based on the idea that free trade is not only a factor for economic prosperity of nations, but also for the promotion of peace. On the other hand, economic policies of many developing countries with the exception of few countries in Southeast Asia have been conditioned by the belief that the key to development rests in the establishment of a powerful manufacturing sector, and that the best way to create such an area was to protect local industries from international competition through substitution imports policies.

1. A representative of the American clothing industry recently made the following statement: “Workers in Asia often work in sweatshop conditions earning only pennies an hour. American workers are more productive and as a result earn higher wages. In order to preserve the dignity of the American workplace, the government should enact legislation banning imports of low-wage Asian clothing.” Answer the following:

The introductory of the documentary examines the fabric mills of Bangladesh. It is very competitive in the international market place to find low cost labor; when merchandise manufactured in another country is imported these country put on a duty rate. Apparel companies contemplating low cost labor,

I think it also works to undo the notions that China was stealing away all our jobs in the apparel arena, because despite the complex protectionist measures taken, America still lost lots of jobs in the textile industry. The author points out that this is because of technology, and that when it really comes down to it, China is losing their textile jobs at a rate faster than the U.S. did (142). She also goes over some of the unintended consequences of the measures such as increased material costs as a result of the increased import barrier (142). She also suggests in this section as an alternative to erecting trade barriers, to instead compensate workers of the losing industries, known as the compensation principle (151). Lastly, with the lift of the measures and quotas by 2005, there will be a new surge in Chinese goods to America, as illustrated in figure 9.1, page 167. China’s percent increase after release from the quotas will measure some 900%.

Free trade has long be seen by economists as being essential in promoting effective use of natural resources, employment, reduction of poverty and diversity of products for consumers. But the concept of free trade has had many barriers to over come. Including government practices by developed countries, under public and corporate pressures, to protect domestic firms from cheap foreign products. But as history has shown us time and time again is that protectionist measures imposed by governments has almost always had negative effects on the local and world economies. These protectionist measures also hurt developing countries trying to inter into the international trade markets.

Since World War II, International trade has gained a rapidly increasing speed due to sustained and high-speed economic development in the world. In other words, countries’ degrees of openness and total volumes of import and export have enormously increased. In this paper, I will focus on the effects of accession to the WTO on textile trade between China and U.S, test comparative advantage theory (the main idea is that, under some conditions, when two countries start free trade, a country will produce and export the good which is in comparative advantage due to lower opportunity cost). Because of textile industries’ labor-intensive property, as the country with the largest amount of labor force, China is likely to have a comparative advantage in textile production. Therefore, it can be reasonable to conjecture that an increase in China’s export of textiles would occur after trade barrier eliminations on account of its WTO membership. In order to test my predictions, I will use regression analysis to test several variables such as Balassa Index (measure comparative advantages), Openness Index and total volume of textiles trade, then explore whether the WTO membership influences textile trade between these two countries.

Bangladesh has got a population of around 150 million (2011) with a life expectancy at birth of around 63 years, and an adult literacy rate of 47.5%. The recent Human Development

Faruqui, M. (2014, July). Nobody can beat Bangladesh in price and quality. Retrieved from http://www.textiletoday.com.bd/magazine/873