The Threads of Justice: Economic Liberalization and the Secondhand Clothing Trade between the United States and Haiti
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THE THREADS OF JUSTICE: ECONOMIC
LIBERALIZATION AND THE SECONDHAND
CLOTHING TRADE BETWEEN THE
UNITED STATES AND HAITI
Abstract: After World War II, as economic liberalization spread across the globe
through international negotiations like the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade, so too did used clothing. Though many proponents of the trade laud its
capacity to create employment opportunities in less developed countries, critics
suggest it has a more insidious deleterious effect on local industry. To this day,
however, little research has been done regarding the symbiotic relationship be-
tween trade liberalization and the secondhand clothing industry. Some economic
scholars suggest that current approaches to liberal trade-unilateral trade prefer-
ences particularly-stymy, instead of stimulate sustainable and just economic
growth in less developed countries. The secondhand clothing industry, though a
relatively minor component of global trade in apparel, may play a crucial role in
justifying inequitable trade programs and allowing well-intentioned donors to
unwittingly foist unmanageable burdens onto the very people they intend to help.
INTRODUCTION
Used clothing consumption in the United States crested during the Great
Depression and through World War II.' As the rate of globalization and eco-
nomic recovery accelerated in the postwar era, used clothing vendors found
themselves with a surplus of goods and a dwindling local consumer base.2 To
adapt to changing times, used clothing vendors shifted their business over-
seas.3 Since the multilateral General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) was initiated in 1947, the world trading system has undergone
multiple rounds of liberalization, which opened a two-way door to the interna-
l Joanne McNeil, The Afterlife of American Clothes: Haitian Entrepreneurs Find Value in Our
Castoffs, REASON, Aug./Sept. 2008, at 68.
2 See Shujiro Urata, Globalization and the Growth in Free Trade Agreements, ASIA-PACIFIC
REV., no. 1, 2002, at 1, 20 (rapid globalization); McNeil, supra note 1, at 68 (diminishing demand for
used clothes).
3 See, e.g., Hanna Rose Shell & Vanessa Bertozzi, Textile Skin, 13 TRANSITION, no. 2, 2006, at
152, 154 (U.S. shipments to Haiti began in the 1960s); McNeil, supra note 1, at 68 (expansion of the
SHCI);About Us, USAGAIN, http://www.usagain.com/about-us [https://perma.cc/5UT7-ADUU] (de-
tailing an organization that exports used clothing to struggling countries for economic, environmen-
tal, and social gain in the United States and abroad); Welcome to the World of Secondhand Clothes,
GARSON & SHAW LLC (collecting clothes from charities like The Gaia Movement, Planet Aid, and
USAgain, and selling them to importers, graders, wholesalers, and retailers in 40 countries).
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The Threads of Justice: Economic Liberalization and the Secondhand Clothing Trade between the United States and Haiti
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