A World Bank assessment
has concluded the abolition of the World Trade Organization's (WTO)
multi-fibre agreement (MFA) on textile trade quotas failed to deliver
wealth to Cambodian and Sri Lankan textile and clothing workers.
In fact, by most measures, the analysis concludes the 2005 liberalisation left these employees worse off, especially women.
With prices falling following unfettered global competition, and
Chinese rivalry intensifying in higher end lines, Cambodia and Sri Lanka
wages fell.
"The increased competition in apparel exports after the [quota]
phase-out drove down the unit values of apparel both in Cambodia and Sri
Lanka," the World Bank said.
In Cambodia, pay and conditions ignoring child labour and mandatory
or unpaid overtime work "worsened in the post-MFA period". And while pay
rose if Sri Lanka working conditions are measured in the same way,
different calculations linking pay to food purchases show "working
conditions declined in Sri Lanka", said the study.
And female-male pay differentials widened as a result. Women are the
overwhelming majority of these countries' textile and clothing workers,
and in Cambodia the wage gap increased after the 2005 MFA phase-out,
from 12% to 13.3% from 2004-08, but decreased in 2009 to 11.5%.
In Sri Lanka during 2002, women earned 40% less than men, rising steeply to 55% in 2006, although decreasing in 2008 to 44%.
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