The Impact Of Blue Trade Barriers On China's Textile And Garment Export Enterprises

Abstract:

Textile and garment industry is an important part of our country. Exit Industry has always been highly vulnerable to European and American countries. technology Limitations of sexual barriers. In the face of the new international trade barrier, the blue trade barrier, textile and garment export enterprises should understand what the blue trade barrier is, how to deal with the blue trade barriers, and guarantee China's textile industry. Garment industry Sustained and healthy development.

Key words: blue trade barrier; influence; SA8000 standard; textile and clothing; labor intensive type.

With the acceleration of international economic integration, tariff barriers and traditional non-tariff barriers are gradually being eliminated and standardized in international trade. At the same time, some developed countries are making use of the differences in economic level, moral standards and educational culture between developing countries and constructing a new and more hidden international trade barrier, the blue trade barrier after the construction of technical barriers to trade and green trade barriers. The blue trade barrier has become the focus of attention of the international community.

Blue trade barrier

The blue trade barrier, also known as the "Labor Barrier" or "social barrier", refers to the trade protection measures under the pretext of the laborer's working environment and the right to existence. The blue barrier is derived from the social provisions, which is a general term for the international conventions on social security, labor treatment, labor rights and labor standards. It is complementary to civil and political rights.

The most typical representative of the blue trade barrier is the SA8000 standard, which is formulated and implemented by the SA-I. The SA-I is composed of 20 large commercial organizations, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, human rights and children's organizations, academic bodies, accounting offices and certification bodies from 11 countries. SA-I introduced the draft standard at the first meeting in New York, originally named SA2000, which was eventually named as the international standard of social responsibility for SA8000 and was released in October 1997. In December 12, 2001, after public consultation and in-depth study, SA-I carried out the first revision of SA8000. The emergence of SA8000 standard has been strongly supported by western developed countries, and has become one of the most important certification standards, and has become the pronoun of blue trade barriers.

　 (1) the causes of the blue trade barriers.

First, in the development of multilateral trade negotiations and trade liberalization of GATT, traditional trade barriers have been greatly restricted, not only by international conventions and international public opinion, but also by equal retaliation, while the barrier of blue trade is more concealed than traditional trade barriers. Meanwhile, the content of blue trade barriers can be recognized by the public as a result of the moral factors contained therein. Such a labor standard with complexity, politics and uncertainty has emerged as one of the best choices for developing countries to implement trade protection policies.

Two, the developing countries with the advantage of cheap labor are attacking the developed countries' domestic market with a large number of cheap products, so that the workers in the related industries such as textiles, clothing, toys, footwear and other related industries in developed countries lose their jobs or wages. In order to protect the domestic market and reduce political pressure, developed countries such as Europe and the United States increasingly accuse and criticize labor conditions and labor environment in developing countries. Some regional industries and even the whole nation, global industry organizations and non-governmental organizations have been involved in the formulation of relevant rules in order to obtain trade self-protection.

Three, since twenty-first Century, multinational enterprises in developed countries have been developing in a giant way. On the one hand, enterprises have changed their previous cost management models, and have begun to emphasize labor rights and interests. Trade unions have considered labour interests from aspects of wages, welfare, resistance, training and working conditions, and actively set up various codes of production inside and outside enterprises, and implemented protective measures for enterprise workers. Under the promotion of large enterprises, the code of production for protecting labor interests has had an impact on the whole world, and the issue of labor treatment is directly linked to international trade. On the other hand, how to protect the export competitiveness of enterprises is forcing enterprises to seek trade protection measures from more levels.

Four, due to the globalization of labor issues and the integration of anti globalization movement with globalization, international organizations and NGOs pay more and more attention to labor treatment, and are eager to seek a convergent international labor standard to promote the steady development of globalization. However, the level of economic development in different countries is different. It is difficult to propose a standard applicable to the wages, working hours, occupational safety and health, social security and other standards applicable to about 200 international trade participants in the world. This provides the most developed countries with the excuse of forcing their labor standards rules to enforce trade protection practices under the guise of protecting labor interests and corporate social responsibility.

Five, a large number of cases of sweatshops have aroused strong public dissatisfaction and concern in many developed countries, and even "no buying movement". They not only pay attention to the quality and safety of products, but also begin to pay more attention to where the products are and what kind of labor environment and labor conditions they produce, so as to decide whether to buy or not. This behavior prompted the government and enterprises to strengthen the examination of labor standards when importing products. This is a social factor that can not be ignored in the establishment of blue trade barriers in developed countries. {page_break}

　 (two) the characteristics and forms of the blue trade barrier.

In theory, the blue clause of SA8000 Standard reflects the demand and expectation of the current society for the development of enterprises. It subverts the concept of "maximizing profits" of the traditional enterprise concept, and begins to stress the importance of strengthening labor concerns in the production process and increasing the social responsibility and humanistic care of enterprises.

The emergence of the SA8000 standard has been used by trade protectionists to become a blue trade barrier and a useful tool to restrict the export of labor-intensive products in developing countries.

(1) nominal legalization, form concealment. The core manifestation of the blue trade barrier is "SA8000 international standard of social responsibility", which is reasonable and lawful according to the requirements of the International Labour Organization Convention, the United Nations Convention on the welfare of the child and the Universal Declaration of human rights. Trade protectionists in developed countries use this characteristic to turn trade protection means from general trade barriers to moral barriers. In practical applications, developed countries rely on a series of international conventions to exert pressure on importers and adopt mandatory measures against enterprises violating SA8000 standards and their products. In execution, from government barriers to private barriers. Most of them are formulated and operated by non-governmental organizations, so that trade protection can be changed from government led to non-governmental organizations. Because of the humanitarian spirit, the developed countries have the right to exert pressure on developing countries to help them improve their labour conditions. Once the humanitarian coat is put on, the developed countries will be able to openly associate labour standards with trade in the world. Using folk power and public opinion to enforce the anti social dumping as a pretext, it has formal concealment.

(2) it has obvious selectivity and discrimination. Judging from the current practice of international trade, the international labour standards pursued by developed countries usually proceed from their own interests, and require all countries to adopt the same standard of blue clauses to protect labor rights of all countries so as to achieve fair competition in international trade. Seemingly identical, it is actually selective to restrict the export of labor-intensive industries in developing countries to protect the domestic market of developed countries. Because the industrial structure of developed and developing countries is obviously different, their social and economic development level is also quite different. In fact, the impact of the "blue clause" is mainly on labor-intensive industries in developing countries.

(3) a wide range of damage and great impact. The blue trade barrier will shift the protection scope from the single final product to the whole production chain. Labor problems exist in all aspects of the whole production process, and the requirement of "cleaner production chain" makes the penetration of the blue trade barriers more profound. The blue trade barrier mainly affects the labor-intensive industries in developing countries. This is the main area for developing countries to use their labor cost advantages to join the international economic cycle. Therefore, the scope of the blue trade barriers is wider than the traditional non-tariff barriers, and has a negative impact on the economic development, employment and balance of payments of developing countries. With the help of blue trade barriers, developed countries will not only affect the product export of the sanctioned enterprises or countries, but also shape their image of neglecting labor rights and social responsibilities. Their brands and international reputation will be misled, which will have a negative impact on consumers' minds for a long time.

At present, there are six main manifestations of blue trade barriers: levying additional taxes on products that violate internationally recognized labour standards; restricting or prohibiting the importation of products which are seriously violating labour standards; implementing trade sanctions on the basis of labor standards; examining factory audits of transnational corporations, certifying social responsibility factories, and marking products of social responsibility products. {page_break}

　 The impact of blue trade barriers on China's textile and garment export enterprises

After the emergence of the blue trade barrier, the international community has heated debate and formed two different camps of developed countries and developing countries. The developed countries believe that the blue barrier is not a trade barrier, but a blue trade system conducive to the construction of human rights and the improvement of labor treatment. It should be popularized all over the world. Developing countries hold the opposite view. It is considered that the improvement of labor treatment to determine foreign trade orders is a trade protection measure, which hinders the development of trade liberalization and greatly reduces the competitive advantage of developing countries in international trade. The heated quarrel between the two camps did not affect the continued development of the blue trade barriers. Instead, there appeared a state of integration between the folk barriers and the government barriers.

For our country, since joining the WTO, it has been more and more deeply integrated into the tide of Global trade. As a "world factory", China has become an important part of the global capital and industrial chain. The great impact of the emergence of blue trade barriers on China's exports is a fact that is facing and unavoidable.

The core of the blue trade barrier is the SA8000 standard. Many European and American Importers use this standard to check the implementation of suppliers, which is one of the main criteria for evaluating suppliers. China's product structure is basically labor intensive. Labor cost is one of the main advantages of China's participation in international trade competition. The main object of the SA8000 standard is labor intensive enterprises. At present, more than 259 organizations in the world involve 35 industries and have joined SA8000 certification activities, including Nike, Adidas, WAL-MART, Coca-Cola and many other multinational companies. Since 2000, European and American enterprises have begun to carry out social responsibility assessment and audit on their global suppliers and contractors, and only through auditing and evaluation can they establish cooperative relations. China's textile and garment export enterprises should see that they have double effects in the face of the blue trade barriers. They have both negative and positive effects.

　　 (1) the negative impact of blue trade barriers on China's textile and garment export enterprises.

(1) impact on orders for textile and garment export enterprises. China has now become the main objective of the global social responsibility movement. China's exports of clothing and clothing accessories account for about 16% of the world's total export trade, and the vast majority of textiles are exported to Europe and the United States and Japan. Toys account for 60% of total exports to the US. In the 90s of last century, after the serious violations of labor rights and interests occurred by export enterprises, the International Workers Union warned that if the labor environment was not improved, the joint developed countries would impose restrictions on China's export products. Then, the developed countries such as Europe and the United States require that China's traditional light industrial products import trade organization sign a labor agreement, requiring all Chinese textile and toy export enterprises to pass the SA8000 standard, otherwise they will boycott imports. As a matter of fact, this certification has been increasingly appearing in the additional conditions of the order of multinational companies. The direct link between the SA8000 standard and the sales and export of enterprises will have a great impact on enterprises in the short term. According to the findings of the American Chamber of Commerce, more than 50% of multinational enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises have re signed contracts with Chinese exporters for SA8000 standards. The reality is that as a large producer of textile and clothing labor-intensive products, China's economic development level is low. The protection of labor has begun, but it still has a certain distance from the requirements of the SA8000 standard. Because of the failure to meet the SA8000 standard, textile and garment export enterprises losing orders in International trade increased year by year.

(2) weaken the competitive advantages of textile and garment export enterprises. In order to maintain the market for export products, textile and garment export enterprises have to take passive measures to improve their labor conditions and strive to verify the SA8000 standard. The SA8000 standard will consume a lot of energy and cost in the short run, especially in the first few years of the implementation of certification, the cost will increase exponentially. Increasing the cost of textile and garment export enterprises will affect the international competitiveness of textile and garment export enterprises.

(3) restricting the export expansion effect of China's textile and clothing products. Trade is prone to chain reaction, that is, it is easy to expand from one country to another and even to the whole world. If a product is prohibited from importing in a European Union, it will soon be banned from the EU's neighboring countries.

(4) improving the access standard of developed countries. The establishment of the blue trade system will bring trade friction and sanctions to our developed countries. At the same time, the developed countries will further propose the implementation of the SA8000 standard in China and set up a new barrier to market access. There are various indications that textile and garment enterprises, which are mainly labor intensive processing trade, are under increasing pressure from the SA8000 standard.

　 (two) the positive impact of blue trade barriers on China's textile and garment export enterprises.

(1) it is beneficial for textile and garment export enterprises to improve labor relations. Although China's labor law and other laws and regulations have specific provisions on the protection of labor rights and interests, because of lagging management and imbalance between supply and demand in labor market, some enterprises in China violate the labor law and infringe upon the rights and interests of workers. Such as illegal employment of child labor, collection of labor deposits, violation of personal rights of workers, overtime work overtime, arrears of wages and so on. In some enterprises, accidents and injuries continue to occur, and the health and safety of workers are not guaranteed. The implementation of the SA8000 standard in China's textile and garment export enterprises requires it to establish a people-oriented management idea so as to improve the tense labor relations. The SA8000 standard not only promotes the protection of workers' rights and interests, but also promotes the fundamental change in the role of labor in economic life.

(2) conducive to the sustainable development of textile and garment export enterprises. At present, many multinational corporations regard SA8000 standard as a lever to promote the development of enterprises. Practice has proved that corporate social responsibility is positively related to the economic benefits of enterprises, and good corporate social responsibility management can not only achieve good social benefits, but also achieve long-term business benefits. The modern enterprise system requires scientific and effective human resource management. Only by paying attention to the labor interests of enterprises can we build a harmonious labor relationship between enterprises and labor, increase the sense of belonging of the labor force, stimulate the work enthusiasm and creativity of the labor force, and greatly improve the work efficiency. Conducive to the transformation of competitive advantage. The certification of SA8000 standard can force enterprises to carry out process reengineering and raise the level of cost management, not just the control of labor cost. In addition, enterprises must pay attention to social benefits and social responsibilities, and they will also be favored by consumers. In addition, with the development of social economy, labor costs will continue to rise. China's export enterprises can take advantage of SA8000's opportunity to promote the transformation of competitive advantage from price advantage to quality and technology advantage. The effective implementation of SA8000 standards in textile and garment export enterprises can not only avoid trade sanctions imposed by European and American countries, but also enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises. {page_break}

　 China's textile and garment export enterprises face the strategy of blue trade barriers

As a labor-intensive industry, textile and garment export enterprises are most prone to violate social responsibilities and obligations in terms of labor rights, human rights protection, labor protection and management systems. Low cost competition has become a competitive feature. When facing the soft constraints of morality, it is necessary for textile and garment export enterprises to re evaluate the current comparative advantage of labor resources, and at the expense of enterprise morality, and to minimize the cost of production and operation so as to seek market competitive advantages.

Textile and garment export enterprises must strengthen their sense of corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility is an inevitable trend of social development.

Textile and garment export enterprises should seriously study the reasonable components of the SA8000 standard, and propose the social responsibility standards or technical specifications that the enterprises should commit to in the form of association, and serve as the basis for self-evaluation of corporate social responsibility and the evaluation of the third party. At the same time, we should strengthen the sense of social responsibility of textile and garment export enterprises, adhere to the people-oriented, improve labor treatment, try to integrate the reasonable requirements of SA8000 into the management system and corporate culture of enterprises, and implement the concept of social responsibility to all levels of enterprise management.

Textile and garment export enterprises should take an active part in the activities of ILO and multilateral negotiations in the form of associations. Through participation in the activities of the International Labour Organization, enhance their status and influence. Under the consultative mechanism of WTO, we should unite other developing countries, strive for favorable conditions, expose the protectionist nature of the unilateral labor standards in developed countries, and properly handle the problem of the linkage between labor standards and trade. We also set up an early-warning mechanism for foreign trade barriers, playing a role in supporting information intelligence, organizing enterprises to respond to complaints, and enhancing mutual communication with relevant organizations in exporting countries, so as to help governments and enterprises do a good job in guarding against and enhance their resilience in international trade.

At the same time, textile and garment export enterprises should also change their concepts, change the price to win the quality, improve the added value of export products, and actively utilize the non price competition means such as trademarks, origin marks, packaging and so on to improve the comprehensive competitiveness of products. Textile and garment export enterprises should actively establish their own brands and independent intellectual property rights, and accelerate the fundamental transformation of export growth mode.