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Financial Times (London, England)
August 30, 2005 Tuesday
London Edition 1
SECTION: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 208 words
HEADLINE: Paying more for textiles will help relieve poverty
BYLINE: By ELENA BONNY
BODY:
From Ms Elena Bonny.
Sir, Far be it that we should meddle in the "Tangled web of textile protection" !
Nevertheless, on reading your editorial (August 19) a question comes to our mind: Are the retailers in the US - and I presume in the European Union also - not the ones who, in their eagerness to lower prices to their consumers back home, have flocked to China (not to mention other Asian countries) in search of "new sourcing opportunities", as your editorial calls them?
Are they not, in fact, the ones responsible for pressuring the outsource to lower their costs, which in the labour-intensive garment industry means mostly keeping wages below poverty level? No wonder there are 600m Asian kids who live in poverty as reported by PLAN, a humanitarian organisation that focuses on children.
Your editorial took the stance that "there is no reason why European and American retailers and consumers should have to suffer for even longer". We are touched by your humanitarianism but we would be a lot more moved if instead it urged the Europeans and Americans to help relieve some of the Asian poverty by paying more for the goods they buy from China and elsewhere.
Elena Bonny,
President and Chief Executive,
SoftLooms International,
Columbus, OH 43221, US
LOAD-DATE: August 29, 2005
August 30, 2005 Tuesday
London Edition 1
SECTION: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 208 words
HEADLINE: Paying more for textiles will help relieve poverty
BYLINE: By ELENA BONNY
BODY:
From Ms Elena Bonny.
Sir, Far be it that we should meddle in the "Tangled web of textile protection" !
Nevertheless, on reading your editorial (August 19) a question comes to our mind: Are the retailers in the US - and I presume in the European Union also - not the ones who, in their eagerness to lower prices to their consumers back home, have flocked to China (not to mention other Asian countries) in search of "new sourcing opportunities", as your editorial calls them?
Are they not, in fact, the ones responsible for pressuring the outsource to lower their costs, which in the labour-intensive garment industry means mostly keeping wages below poverty level? No wonder there are 600m Asian kids who live in poverty as reported by PLAN, a humanitarian organisation that focuses on children.
Your editorial took the stance that "there is no reason why European and American retailers and consumers should have to suffer for even longer". We are touched by your humanitarianism but we would be a lot more moved if instead it urged the Europeans and Americans to help relieve some of the Asian poverty by paying more for the goods they buy from China and elsewhere.
Elena Bonny,
President and Chief Executive,
SoftLooms International,
Columbus, OH 43221, US
LOAD-DATE: August 29, 2005
posted by Eastlaw at 11:38 PM
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