W.Va.'s garment industry hit hard by free trade

[UpInArms]

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/200311172/

HARRISVILLE — Barbara Ratliff hugged her arms around her and stared at her shoes. Cool autumn air poured through the open loading dock where she stood.

Behind her, the interior of Safety Stitch, the plant where she toiled for the past six years, sat dimly lit and quiet.

<snip>

Ritchie County was once home to as many as six garment factories, full of humming sewing machines, churning out clothes for some of the nation’s leading retailers.

Safety Stitch was the last to go. It closed Aug. 1, ending a futile pursuit for clothing contracts in the face of a mass exodus by the U.S. garment industry.

Hundreds of thousands of U.S. textile and apparel jobs have been lost since the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

...more...

A the joys of "free trade" - I have been opposed to NAFTA, GATS and the FTAA forever - and I did agree with icky Ross Perot when he said that we would hear a giant sucking sound upon their implementation.

[HereSince1628]

1. All US strategic interests = potential for corporate profits

and really that means profits of international business.

Over the past week my mind has returned to my inability to name a single American strategic interest that isn't about coportate profits.

Ignoring the chaff thrown out about liberating oppressed people, the real issue, even stated in the NSS, is "free markets." Which on its face promotes the opportunity to sell products everywhere, but whose flipside is the opportunity to exploit cheap labor from everywhere.