The Role T-Shirt Imports played in the days following 9/11

A paragraph in Pietra Rivoli’s book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, that really caught my attention was in chapter 8 titled Perverse Effects and Unintended Consequences of T-Shirt Trade Policy. The first paragraph under a section called, Wal-Mart Backs Musharraf, Rivoli talks about the role T-shirt imports played in the days following the attack on the World Trade Center. The talks involved President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. The talks centered on Pakistan. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf aligned himself with the United States and along with receiving an aid package asked the United States to lessen trade restrictions on textile and apparel imports to the United States. Rivoli emphasizes, “Textile and apparel represented more than 60 percent of Pakistan’s industrial employment and its exports, and the United States was by far the country’s biggest consumer…apparel and textiles to the United States were restricted by tariffs as high as 29 percent” (159). Maintaining Pakistan as an ally as the United States mobilized itself for the war on terror targeting Pakistan’s neighbor Afghanistan was critical. This paragraph was surprising to read because I was not aware of the extent to which the textile trading industry played in world affairs especially after the 9/11 attacks.
In an article from November 8, 2001 from The New York Times, titled Pakistanis Urge U.S. to Suspend Textile Tariffs, the extent to which the United States changed following 9/11 really had a strong effect on Pakistan’s economy. The article states, “A two-thirds decline in business from United States companies is forcing apparel and textile concerns in Pakistan to lay off thousands of people and could soon close numerous factories, according to a report released yesterday by a Pakistani trade group.” The article continues on explaining that companies such as American Eagle Outfitters and Perry Ellis have stopped ordering goods from Pakistan. American retailers feared that escalating hostilities would prevent their goods from arriving on time. Representatives from the Pakistan Textile and Apparel Group believed the industry needed tariff relief in order to survive. Rivoli mentions a few paragraphs later that Pakistan’s request for tariff relief was completely denied since President Bush knew that such a request would need Congressional approval. The United States did grant quota expansion and more quota flexibility to Pakistan but as this article demonstrates such measures did not do much to help the textile and apparel industry.
Pakistan is still a main player in the United States war with Afghanistan. Just recently the Taliban and Pakistan reached a truce concerning the violence in Swat Valley, Pakistan’s biggest tourist attraction that sits on the border of Afghanistan. This truce has expressed some concern among officials that such an agreement could cede Swat Valley to extremists, however; the main topic of the article found on cnn.com discusses Pakistan’s hope in Obama’s administration’s commit to rid their region of extremists.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E1DE1E39F93BA35752C1A9679C8B63

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/24/pakistan.obama/index.html?iref=newssearch