U.S. Apparel Imports From Burma Soar, Despite Increased Repression and Sanctions

Document exposes links between trade relations of U.S. apparel industry with Burmese sub-contractors. It is argued that imports from Burma help strengthen the military regime and with its human rights abolitions and calls for more transparency to consumers.

Some of the main findings include:

• Retailers like Bradlees, J.C. Penny, Sears, Marshalls, and apparel companies such as Fashion Knitwear, One Step Up, Arrow, Karl Kani, Salmor--among others--continue to sell clothing made in Burma.
• Apparel imports up 43 percent. U.S. apparel imports from Burma soared 43.4 percent in the first six months of 1998. This year U.S. companies will import more than $110 million of clothing made in Burma.
• Four cent an hour wages and military control attract U.S. apparel companies. Garment workers in Burma earn just four cents an hour or $8.00 a month! The military is immediately brought in to suppress any worker grievances.
• Propping up the dictators: Full foreign ownership of companies operating in Burma is illegal so all U.S. apparel sourcing there must be done as a joint venture with the Burmese military. Money earned from garment exports to the U.S. goes directly to purchase weapons from China to repress the people of Burma. In fact, apparel production is one of the last profitable investments in Burma.
• Avoiding U.S. government sanctions: U.S. companies avoided government sanctions prohibiting new investments in Burma by racing through new investment approvals in the weeks before the sanctions came into force in May 1997. To beat the deadline, in one month more new investments were registered than had been over the previous five years.

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