Articulations of Capital

Labor Regimes, Global Production Networks, and European Union Trade Policy: Labor Standards and Export Production in the Moldovan Clothing Industry

“…Second, we have highlighted how state-driven forms of global labor governance deployed through FTA labor provisions are limited in ameliorating the worst excesses of labor exploitation in GPNs. GPNs are not only systems of market integration, interfirm coordination, and value adding activity, but they are constructed through the sociopolitical contexts in which they are situated (see Levy 2008;Pickles and Smith 2016). This reiterates the contradictory role of the state in international trade policy, which seeks to balance its accumulation and legitimation functions by constructing new spaces for market exchange while being seen to regulate work via international labor standards without addressing the structural basis for poor working conditions: a contradiction that also shapes how GPNs are able to expand and exploit in macroregional economic geographies.…”

“…As Plank and Staritz (2015) and Pickles and Smith (2016) have highlighted, there is an increasing role played by macroregional production networks in the clothing sector across European borders. EU trade policy is central to this process, leading to the creation of expanded markets and investment opportunities for lead firms, including in countries neighboring the European Union.…”

“…The EU's trade policy and economic integration framework with its neighboring states has focused on the creation of new economic opportunities for EU capital in the geographically proximate but lower labor cost zones of Eastern and Central Europe and North Africa, often to reduce production costs of industrial goods for EU markets (Smith 2015a(Smith , 2015bCampling 2016;Pickles and Smith 2016). Trade policy has been key to a process of captive and uneven economic integration to create a macroregional space of trade and economic integration.…”

“…GPN concepts of interfirm governance highlight the power relations between lead firms and suppliers in the production of value, as new international divisions of labor are created by cross-border integration, and as firms and states attempt to control the labor process and manage risk (Pickles and Smith 2016;Smichowski, Durand, and Knauss 2016).…”

“…This is in the context of the turn toward fast fashion across the European Union (Tokatli 2008;Rossi 2013) and the utilization of neighboring countries to secure rapid replenishment stock (Pickles and Smith 2016). As one respondent stated, "Delivery times are shorter because we have to compete with China and we can't compete on price.…”