孟加拉崛起:快時尚需求推動孟加拉服裝製造業繁榮

Monica Brooks and her daughter Morgan, age 8, rifled through the racks at a Zara store in Dallas Thursday night, looking at $16 bejeweled T-shirts and $10 ruffled tops.

週四晚上，布魯克斯(Monica Brooks)和她八歲的女兒摩根(Morgan)在達拉斯一家Zara店的貨架間掃蕩，瀏覽標價16美元的珠綴T恤衫和10美元的褶飾上裝。

Labels inside the clothing at the fast-fashion chain showed that it came from around the globe, including from Bangladesh, the site of a spate of deadly textile-factory fires and a recent building collapse that has killed more than 1,100 garment workers.

從這家快時尚連鎖店的服裝標籤顯示，這些服裝來自世界各地，包括孟加拉國。孟加拉國的服裝廠曾發生一系列致命的火災，最近，一棟大樓的倒塌導致超過1,100名服裝工人死亡。

That surprised Ms. Brooks, a 41-year-old software saleswoman who shops at Zara "more than I should," she said. "It just goes to show you that we are not paying attention to that."

這讓布魯克斯感到驚訝。布魯克斯是一名41歲的軟件銷售人員。她說，我在Zara購物的次數簡直太多了。布魯克斯說，這隻能說明我們以前沒注意到衣服的產地。

Americans" appetite for cheap clothes is one of the strongest of the economic forces that led to a boom in Bangladesh, with the resulting race to add manufacturing capacity setting the stage for the series of horrific accidents.

美國人對廉價服裝的慾望是引發孟加拉服裝業繁榮的最強大的經濟力量之一，隨之而來的加緊提高產能的趨勢成了上述一系列可怕事故的導火索。

U.S. consumers have become accustomed to spending relatively little on clothing compared with other items─and getting a lot for their money. Americans last year devoted just 3% of their annual spending to clothing and footwear, compared with around 7% in 1970 and about 13% in 1945, according to Commerce Department data.

相比其他方面的開支，美國的消費者已經習慣了在服裝上少花錢，但要物超所值。根據商務部(Commerce Department)的數據，美國人去年花在服裝和鞋類上的支出僅佔他們年度開支的3%，相比之下，1970年的這一比例爲大約7%，1945年爲13%左右。

One reason Americans now spend so little is that U.S. clothing prices have fallen significantly over the past two decades, after rising in the 1950s, 1960s and especially in the 1970s.

美國人在服裝上的支出這麼少的一個原因是，美國的服裝價格過去20年大幅下降，而此前，在上世紀50、60年代，尤其是70年代，服裝的價格一直在不斷上升。

Chains like Inditex SA"s +0.98% Zara and Hennes & Mauritz AB"s +0.77% H&M have set the tone for "fast fashion."

Inditex SA旗下的Zara和海恩斯莫里斯(Hennes & Mauritz AB)旗下H&M等服裝連鎖爲“快時尚”定下了基調。

"Apparel prices are lower in absolute terms now than they were in the 1990s," says Dean Maki, an economist at Barclays +1.42% .

巴克萊集團(Barclays PLC, )的經濟學家馬奇(Dean Maki)說，目前的服裝價格絕對低於上世紀90年代的價格。

Since 1990, clothing prices in the U.S. have risen just 10% compared with an 82% jump in food prices during the same period, according to Jessica Tenvose, an economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles the Consumer Price Index.

美國勞工統計局(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)的經濟學家Jessica Tenvose說，上世紀90年代以來，美國的服裝價格僅上漲了10%，相比之下，食品價格在同一時期上漲了82%。美國勞工統計局負責編制消費者價格指數(Consumer Price Index)。

If adjusted for inflation, clothing prices would show a decline.

如果經過通脹調整，服裝的價格則呈下降趨勢。

That may be changing a bit. Apparel prices rose about 2% in December 2012 from a year earlier, following a jump of almost 5% in the previous year when cotton prices spiked.

這種情況正在發生微小的變化。2012年12月，服裝價格同比上漲了2%，之前一年，棉花價格飆升時，服裝價格上漲了將近5%。

But with consumers so used to paying so little, retailers and apparel manufacturers are reluctant to raise prices and have become even more eager to find low-cost countries to produce their goods in, economists say.

但是經濟學家們說，鑑於消費者已經習慣花很少的錢購買服裝，零售商和服裝製造商不願意漲價，他們更加迫切地尋找低成本的服裝產地。

The sluggish U.S. economy and stagnant wage growth add to the pressure on retailers by capping consumers" disposable income, but the desire to shop for trendy new outfits remains strong.

美國經濟的低迷和工資增長的停滯讓消費者的可支配收入十分有限，這增加了零售商的壓力，但人們購買新的潮流服裝的慾望仍然強烈。

Meanwhile, labor costs in China─long the world"s low-cost factory floor─have been rising rapidly.

與此同時，在長期充當世界工廠的中國，勞動力成本一直在迅速上升。

So retailers and apparel producers are switching to lower-cost alternatives like India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Bangladesh, where the entry-level wage for garment workers is shy of $40 a month.

因此，零售商和服裝製造商正在轉向成本更低的其他國家，如印度、越南、柬埔寨和孟加拉國，在這些國家，初級服裝工人的工資還不到每月40美元。

On Sunday, Bangladesh"s textile minister said he will soon start talks with labor groups and factory owners to agree on a new minimum wage for the industry.

上週日，孟加拉紡織部長說，他將很快開始與勞工組織和工廠廠主對話，就一個新的工廠最低工資標準達成一致。

Depending on the size of the wage increase, Western retailers might pull business away from Bangladesh, though wages there would have to quadruple to top those in China.

如果工資上漲幅度過大，西方零售商可能會將訂單從孟加拉國轉往別的國家，不過孟加拉國工人的工資要漲上三倍才能超過中國工人的工資。

In the short run, brands might absorb the rise, as many did in 2011, when cotton prices spiked.

短期而言，在孟加拉國生產服裝的外國品牌可能需要自行消化這一工資上漲因素，就像他們中的許多2011年在棉花價格上漲時所做的那樣。

The rush to Bangladesh began in earnest in 2005, when an international trade quota system called the Multi Fiber Arrangement expired, lifting the strict limit on the amount of textiles and garments developing countries could export to developed countries.

2005年，西方企業開始紛紛前往孟加拉國生產服裝，那一年被稱作《多種纖維協定》(Multi Fiber Arrangement)的國際貿易配額體制正式到期，發展中國家向發達國家出口紡織品和服裝此後不再面臨嚴格的數量限制。

"Manufacturers saw that it was cheaper to manufacture in Bangladesh and places like Cambodia than China, especially to those manufacturers in Europe, where transportation was cheaper than from China," says Katie Quan, associate chair of the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education.

美國加州大學伯克利分校勞工研究與教育中心副主任關少蘭(Katie Quan)說，製造商們發現，孟加拉國和柬埔寨等地的生產成本比中國低，對歐洲的製造商來說尤其如此，孟加拉國和柬埔寨至歐洲的運輸成本比中歐間的運輸成本低。

Inexpensive clothing allows consumers to buy more. "When I was a little kid in 1950, clothes weren"t so cheap, and I remember we only had three or four dresses and that was plenty for a middle-class girl," Ms. Quan said. "Now I have three closets full, and it"s not enough."

消費者由於服裝價格低廉得以購買更多衣服。關少蘭說，當我上世紀50年代還是個小孩子時，服裝可沒有現在這麼便宜，我記得我們只有三套或四套衣服，對於一箇中產階級家庭的女孩來說這已經很多了。她說，我現在的三個衣櫃全都裝得滿滿的，而這還不夠。

Yet when shifts in global labor costs and production occur abruptly, they can put enormous pressure on economies.

但當全球勞動力成本和生產格局突然發生變化時，將會給經濟帶來巨大壓力。

In Bangladesh"s case, major factories became overbooked and so subcontracted more work to smaller outfits. Such subcontracting, and the increasing role of middlemen, have made it easier for retailers to lose track of which factories are producing their goods─and, many critics say, to avoid taking responsibility for poor factory conditions.

就孟加拉國的情況而言，大型企業接獲的訂單都超出了它們的生產能力，因此這些企業紛紛將更多工作分包給中小企業去做。這種分包行爲以及中間人在這一過程中所起的作用日益增大，使得零售商更加難以追蹤到究竟是哪些工廠在生產其定製的服裝，而在許多批評人士看來，這也使得零售商們更加容易免於爲工廠惡劣的工作條件承擔責任。

The upshot: Bangladesh has quickly become among the world"s largest exporters of clothing, and has suffered one of the worst industrial accidents ever.

其結果是：孟加拉國迅速躋身於世界最大服裝出口國之列，但世界有史以來最嚴重的工業事故之一也隨之在這個國家發生。

"If wages rise quickly elsewhere, and producers all flee to the same place, you obviously can overwhelm an economy, and there seems to be a bit of that" in Bangladesh, says Robert Frank, an economics professor at Cornell University. "The influx of manufacturing there was so quick that there was very little time to adjust to it."

美國康奈爾大學(Cornell University)經濟學教授弗蘭克(Robert Frank)說，如果世界其他地方的工資水平出現迅速上漲，製造商們全都涌向一個地方從事生產，這個地方的經濟顯然會不堪承受重負，孟加拉國似乎就有點是這種情況。他說，製造業匯聚到這裏的速度是如此之快，當地幾乎沒有時間就此做出調整。

Zara"s clothes were found in the latest factory fire last week. Inditex SA, Zara"s parent company, didn"t immediately respond to a request for comment.

在孟加拉國上週最新一起工廠火災的現場發現了Zara品牌的服裝，Zara的母公司Inditex SA未立即對記者尋求置評的要求做出迴應。

Clothes for J.C. Penney Co., JCP +2.07% Benetton, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT +0.63% and Loblaw Cos." Joe Fresh brand were found at recent factory accidents in Bangladesh.

而在孟加拉國近期一系列工廠事故的事發現場，人們發現了J.C. Penney Co.、貝納通(Benetton)、沃爾瑪(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)和Loblaw Cos.旗下Joe Fresh等零售商下單生產的服裝。

Many of the retailers, such as Penney and Wal-Mart, have said they are phasing out use of factories within multiuse buildings. Loblaw said it plans to expand the scope of its factory audits.

J.C. Penney和沃爾瑪等許多這些零售商說，它們正在逐步放棄讓在多用戶建築裏從事生產的工廠爲其加工服裝。Loblaw說，它計劃擴大其工廠審計的規模。

Benetton said a one-time order from the collapsed factory was completed weeks ago, and that none of the companies there is a supplier now.

貝納通說，它交給孟加拉國那座垮塌建築中一家工廠的一筆一次性訂單已於數週前完成，在那座建築裏從事生產的企業目前沒有一家是貝納通的供應商。

Another shopper at Zara, Mary Park, said she isn"t bothered by where the clothes are made.

另一位在Zara門店購物的顧客帕克(Mary Park)說，她並不在意所買的服裝是哪裏生產的。

"I am from China," said Ms. Park, a 27-year-old cosmetics saleswoman. "Manufacturing has been good to the country."

這名27歲的化妝品推銷員說，我來自中國，製造業一直對中國起着積極作用。