Often, when we think of a t-shirt, not much consideration goes past throwing it on and walking out the door. We discover in The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, author Pietra Rivoli conveys the story of a t-shirt she purchased in Florida for just $5.99. Beginning with core element of the t-shirt, she describes the cotton boom in the United States and why we have reigned supreme as the leading cotton producer. She even meets with a Texan farmer who warms your heart from the very beginning of the chapter. Next, the cotton goes on to textile mills and factories, and Rivoli explains the history of the textile industry. With this lesson, she demonstrates how the textile industry boom was a …show more content…
She supplies us with an in-depth history of the protectionism of textiles in the United States up until the Multi-fiber Arrangement expired in 2005. She further emphasises the convolution, and even the ridiculousness, of the quotas, tariffs, and other restrictions that political lobbyists and U.S. manufacturers have enforced to protect the textile industry.
Rivoli reveals that the t-shirt doesn’t enter into a free market until it becomes a discarded “castoff” and ends up in Salvation Army bin postmarked for Africa: "America’s castoffs have customers the world over and clothing thrown away by Americans forms the backbone of a highly successful global industry." She argues, the policies of free markets are demanding that the American textile industry realize that international competitors from low-cost labor countries able to produce cheaper clothing, are forcing them to reconsider business strategies.
She also points out that protectionism and lobbying has provided life to the American textile industry “only by unnatural acts of life support”. Moreover, Rivoli presents that most measures of protectionism have actually hindered American industries for the future.
Question 4: According to Rivoli, what is the role of politics in international trade?
The role of politics is very important within international trade. From the cotton slaves in the nineteenth-century, to the