hoo-ray?

LONDON, Nov. 8 - Moving to control surging imports of clothes from Asia, the United States signed an agreement with China here today placing quotas on items including cheap shirts and trousers over the next three years.

The deal raised the volumes of clothing that the United States would accept from China when compared with previous arrangements, but it placed limits on those volumes and included a wider range of products than those already subject to restrictions.- New York Times Article.

This sounds like progress, but how many of these companies are actually US based corporations exploiting the human resources available in the country just to turn a buck. Yeah it benefits China, but i daresay that these talks were constructed around the notion that it would benefit the retailers and the consumers in the US and not how it would benefit the corporations and the governments. It is a song and dance that seems to need more attention from responsible consumers. (Where is adbusters on these issues? I would like to be informed more clearly so that an informed decision can be mad other than buy ther black spot chucks b/c nike bought the copyright to make the converse allstars classic...or not to shop on th e largest money making retail day of the year.) How come we can not get a fair shot at the freedom of communications act with negotiations like this? we as a public find ou tabout these decisions after they have been made. Corporations have continually exploited countries with the human resources to produce goods so that they can earn more money in the US or Europe. We as consumers revel in the sales of how we were able to obtain these available items for reasonable prices, but it is always one sided stories. it is always presented in a manner that benefits the consumer. There is always more to this story than the consumer , whom will be told in 6 months that they will need the next hot thing, what about the village making the goods and the conditions they are making them under. We do not hear about these becuase it may slow down or hamper sales for this retail season. We ARE all guilty of not being responsible consumers. If we are going to actively pursue one global economy and hegemonic conditions of a unified consumerists culture, then all cultures should be treated equall under that umbrella and not segragated by ethnicity and economic viability. Minimum wage for one country should be global throughout that company. It is the responsibility of the corporation to the labourer...and the consumer.