ABSTRACT

China is the world's most important exporter of textiles and clothing (T&C). At the beginning of 2005 the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) and the system of Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) export quotas came to an end, and clothing and textile trade has been integrated into the normal rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Developing countries now have the opportunity to expand their exports to markets formerly restricted by quota. This chapter offers some thoughts, based both on Chinese and English sources, on the past and possible future social costs of China's export successes and of its trade liberalisation under the WTO, with the T&C industries as the focus. It focuses on the processes of economic reform of the clothing and textile industries in the late 1990s in preparation for WTO membership and considers the employment and social implications of that restructuring.