ABSTRACT
In global terms, the textile and apparel industries are among the most geographically dispersed of all forms of manufacturing activity and have historically played a key role in the initial stages of economic development for both developed and developing countries. This chapter examines the ways in which the restructuring of the United States textile and apparel industry complex has impacted on the political economy of the northern Caribbean. It also explores this process of restructuring in the US industry against the backdrop of the failure of the international regime that has regulated the textile and apparel trade since 1974, the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), to protect US industry from low-wage competition. The chapter then reviews the impact of low-wage imports on the US textile and apparel complex and the ways in which specific parts of the industry have responded to them. It offers an alternative reading of the development of the post-war textile and apparel regime.
