Reference: The plight of Thailand's women workers, Bangkok Post, September 13, 2007

The Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) and its quota system for garment export were ended in 2005. Since then there has been a gradual but dramatic change in this industry in which exporters have traditionally competed only on the basis of low labor cost and a depressed currency. After the quotas were lifted, China emerged as the winner. Unhindered by quotas, the Chinese juggernaut is squeezing the small and incompetent competitors. The Chinese enjoy not only a seemingly limitless supply of cheap labor, but a great deal of investment capital and a degree of vertical integration that is impossible for poor countries to duplicate. They make not only garments but the cloth, the sewing machines, and the entire industrial infrastructure to support their garment sector. The small competitors who are in the business of selling their poverty by simply providing cheap labor are slowly losing out in the garment business. Garment factory closures are not unique to Thailand but endemic to this entire sector outside of China and India. The explanation for layoffs in the garment industry in Thailand does not lie in factors that are unique to Thailand. The column's thesis that these layoffs may be explained in terms of either the rising value of the Thai Baht or discrimination against women in Thai society or both is superficial and incomplete.

Cha-am Jamal