The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy

Piers Rivoli - examines process from cotton fields in Texas to spinning, weaving and sewing in China and finally to the recycle trade in Africa. All the front side is tightly controlled by US trade regs - tariffs, quantities per country - all to protect the dying US textile industry. It all costs us a ton. The only free market aspect is the used short recycle business. And the restrictions hurt the local economies of the producing nations though the restrictions spread the industry further afield than China. Eliminating them would just bring all back to China.