No country on earth profits as much from free trade as Bangladesh.
Its clothing exports dominate the country's manufacturing economy: making clothes for Europeans and Americans has created millions of jobs, and helped millions of women break out of the misery of being an agricultural worker in a poor country. The country sells far more to the EU (to which it has duty-free access) than to the US – so, naturally it's lobbying for duty-free access to the US as well. And, with impressive Congresspeople backing their pitch, they may well get that advantage. Giving them a unique competitive edge over other countries in the Indian subcontinent
So it's depressing to realise that Bangladesh practices fierce protectionism itself, and that senior members of its Garment Manufacturers' association (BGMEA) are seriously arguing foreign-owned garment manufacturers should be closed down.
The argument is a dreadful one. Foreign-owned garment factories don't pay their workers less, or employ fewer Bangladeshis. They merely do the job better than locally-owned factories. Freezing foreign ownership out doesn't make life worse for the people of Bangladesh (by restricting foreign expertise and capital, it actually reduces the country's copmpetitiveness): it just makes life more competitive for 3,000 factory owners.
Which, of course, is the point. The Bangladesh government's recent decision to make importing Indian yarn tougher improved the ability of Bangladeshi spinners to charge more – and so make Bangladeshi garments more expensive. Bangladeshi politics is dominated by clothing and textile owners: 10% of the country's MPs own garment factories – and in lobbying to freeze out foreign ownership are clearly more concerned with their personal wealth than with the wellbeing of the country.
It's none of our business how Bangladesh governs itself. But it IS our job to point out that Bangladeshi protectionism isn't concerned with saving Bangladeshi jobs (as, for example, China's export rebates are clearly concerned with keeping jobs in China).
It's all about enhancing the wealth of a few thousand of Bangladesh's richest people. Who happen to be seriously over-represented in the country's Parliament
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