CASE STUDY A Tragedy in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a very poor country. According to World Bank
estimates, in 2010 some 77 percent of Bangladeshis were living on
the equivalent of less than $2 a day, and 43 percent were living on
less than $1.25 a day. Incredibly, however, these numbers reflected
a major improvement from the not-so-distant past: In 1992, 93
percent of the population lived on less than $2 a day in today's
dollars, 67 percent on less than $1.25.
This decline in poverty was the byproduct of two decades of
impressive eco nomic growth that doubled the nation's GDP per
capita. Bangladeshi growth, in turn, relied crucially on rising
exports, specifically, exports of apparel. As we noted in Chapter
11, the Bangladeshi clothing industry is a classic case of com
parative advantage: It has relatively low productivity, even
compared with other developing countries, but Bangladesh has even
lower relative productivity in other industries, so it has become a
clothing export powerhouse.
Bangladeshi competitiveness in clothing depends, however, on
low wages and poor working conditions. How poor? On April 24, 2013,
the world was shocked by news that an eight-story building in
Bangladesh, containing a number of gar ment factories, had
collapsed, killing more than 1,200 people. Inquiries revealed that
cracks had appeared in the building the day before, but garment
workers had been ordered back to work anyway. It also appeared that
the building was struc turally unsuited for manufacturing work and
may have had extra stories added without a permit.
And who was buying the clothing made under these unsafe
conditions? We were: The factories in the building were supplying
clothing to a number of popular Western clothing brands.
Clearly, Bangladesh needs to take steps to protect its
workers, starting by enforcing its own building and worker-safety
laws. But how should consumers in wealthy nations—that means, among
other people, you—respond?
An immediate, instinctive response is that we shouldn't buy
goods produced in countries where workers are treated so badly. Yet
as we've just seen, Bangladesh desperately needs to keep exporting
clothing, and it can only do so if its workers receive very low
wages by Western standards. Indeed, it needs to pay less even than
China, whose apparel industry has higher productivity. And low
wages and poor working conditions tend, whatever we might like, to
go together.
Does this mean that nothing can be done to help Bangladeshi
workers that won't end up hurting them instead? No. One can imagine
trying, either by law or simply through consumer pressure, some
basic standards for working conditions that apply not just to
Bangladesh butto its competitors. Provided that they're not too
ambitious, such standards could make life better for Bangladeshi
workers without destroying the exports the country relies on.
But it won't be easy, and one shouldn't expect too much from
such measures. For the foreseeable future, two uncomfortable facts
will continue to be true when it comes to trade with poor
countries: Workers in those countries will suffer from worse wages
and working conditions than Westerners can easily imagine, yet
refusing to buy what those workers produce would make them much
worse off.
questions are: -What issues in international trade does the
case of the clothing industry in Bangladesh depict?
-Why has Bangladesh become a clothing export powerhouse?
-What role do labor costs play in this?
-Briefly describe the April 24th industrial accident in
Bangladesh, and its ramifications on world garment trade.
-What was the reaction of the developed world's retailers' to
this tragedy.
-How effective have these efforts been?
-Does Bangladesh still have a comparable advantage in the
garment making manufacturing? Why/ Why not?