Vietnam in the global garment and textile value chain: impacts on firms and workers

Abstract

Over the course of little more than a decade, Vietnam has become a significant exporter of garments to the EU and Japan, and now to the US too. Based on interviews with firms and buyers, and analysis of trade data, this paper traces how Vietnamese garment and textile firms are inserted into global garment and textile value chains. It considers ties between the Vietnamese garment and textiles industries. And, it reflects on how the nature of insertion into global value chains leads to differentiated gains for state owned and private enterprises, and for textile and garment workers. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Impact of Global Value Chains on Employment in India

“…Seker (2012) analyzed 43 developing economies and found that exporters as well as importers have a tendency to employ more workers than firms that are not internationalized at all. Several case studies have suggested significant employment gains from trade, such as those by Kabeer and Mahmud (2004), Nadvi and Thoburn (2004), and Kien and Heo (2008). However, trade liberalization is considered to improve competitiveness and economies of scale only under certain assumptions, such as that of perfect competition and constant returns to scale (Winters 2000).…”

Labouring for global markets: Conceptualising labour agency in global production networks

“…Articles on governance or labour standards in global production networks typically end with a paragraph on labour, usually concluding that labour employed at the tail end of the network needs further empirical research (Nadvi and Thoburn, 2004;Coe, Dicken and Hess, 2008). Nadvi, for example, in a recent assessment of global standards and global governance, calls for research on labour and work processes that engages 'with the local social context -which includes norms and values as well as gender and household relations and the ways in which these impact on local work practices and work organization' (Nadvi, 2008: 340).…”

Post-Multifibre Arrangement Analysis of the Textile and Garment Sectors in Kenya

“…Since the textile and clothing industry is to a large extent labour intensive, the cost of labour is an important ingredient in production cost and efficiency (Nadvi et al 2004). Wages in the Kenyan textile and clothing industry are higher than those in China and India.…”