Interviews
NGO's & activists derail export bandwagon
07 Apr '09
2 min read
Some non-governmental organizations in Europe and America attempt are attempting to achieve the purpose of trade protection by using excuses like labour rights, sweat shops and animal protection to discredit Chinese enterprises.
India's ban on Chinese toys and "Buy American" clause of the United States have triggered public condemn, showing that trade protectionism does not have a standing or place in today's open economy which has no borders.
But at the same time, China is experiencing another kind of problem. Non-governmental organizations in some countries are releasing vilified statements based on hearsay to slander down Chinese enterprises and discredit goods imported from China.
In February this year, a US based non-governmental organization 'National Labour Committee' released a report entitled "High-Tech Misery in China”. The report termed a supplier to IBM, Microsoft, Dell and Lenovo as a sweat shop.
Early in March, some reporters went to the factory mentioned in the report to conduct a on the spot field survey on some aspects, such as working hours, working environment, living conditions and wages.
They did not come across any instances mentioned in the report such as 'workers sitting on hardwood stools for 12 hours every day, working seven days a week, only have two days of leave per month and wages less than 3 Yuan per hour'.
In contrast, workers in Meitai factory were relatively highly satisfied with their working conditions and praised their enterprise. Around the same time a Swedish television channel released a video showing a Chinese company in poor light.
The video in question shows Chinese workers plucking feathers from live geese and comments that more than 10 enterprises have admitted to using this cruel method to pluck the feathers from live birds, particularly, geese.
But, the fact of the matter is tha,t experts deride the video by saying that this method is simply not cost effective to implement and in fact products made from feathers account for a mere 0.2 percent of overall output from the sector.
India's ban on Chinese toys and "Buy American" clause of the United States have triggered public condemn, showing that trade protectionism does not have a standing or place in today's open economy which has no borders.
But at the same time, China is experiencing another kind of problem. Non-governmental organizations in some countries are releasing vilified statements based on hearsay to slander down Chinese enterprises and discredit goods imported from China.
In February this year, a US based non-governmental organization 'National Labour Committee' released a report entitled "High-Tech Misery in China”. The report termed a supplier to IBM, Microsoft, Dell and Lenovo as a sweat shop.
Early in March, some reporters went to the factory mentioned in the report to conduct a on the spot field survey on some aspects, such as working hours, working environment, living conditions and wages.
They did not come across any instances mentioned in the report such as 'workers sitting on hardwood stools for 12 hours every day, working seven days a week, only have two days of leave per month and wages less than 3 Yuan per hour'.
In contrast, workers in Meitai factory were relatively highly satisfied with their working conditions and praised their enterprise. Around the same time a Swedish television channel released a video showing a Chinese company in poor light.
The video in question shows Chinese workers plucking feathers from live geese and comments that more than 10 enterprises have admitted to using this cruel method to pluck the feathers from live birds, particularly, geese.
But, the fact of the matter is tha,t experts deride the video by saying that this method is simply not cost effective to implement and in fact products made from feathers account for a mere 0.2 percent of overall output from the sector.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - China
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Brother Internationale Industriemaschinen GmbH
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Textile Machinery Association of Sweden (TMAS)
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