Thursday, June 24, 2004

Maquila closing -- sign of things to come?

Following up on Monday's post on maquilas:

Charles Products, a maquila operation that sold products to Walt Disney and the GAP, with financing from Hong Kong investors, has shut down its operations and headed to Sri Lanka. According to El Diario de Hoy, a delegation of U.S. legislators had visited this business in May, and the imminent closing was used as an argument for the rapid approval of CAFTA. The head of the Salvadoran Association of the Clothing Industry said that this case was an important indicator, since Charles Products was one of the leading exporters of clothes to the U.S. from El Salvador.

A thousand people lost their jobs with this move, while the company -- in peak season -- employed 1800 people.

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