Took some time off here because of a project that had to be done. But came back to realize that we are just days away from the biggest shift in jobs in the shortest amount of time in history: 30 million jobs. On January 1, 2005, after 40 years, worldwide quotas will end on apparel. Within 500 days, 70 percent of the industry will shift to China, a $220 billion shift; $42 billion of that shift will happen just in the business other countries had with the U.S.

We often forget the devastation other third world countries face in the roiling global economy and, specifically, in the China-Third World relationship: Turkey, African countries and Caribbean countries will be the big losers (Bangladesh, where apparel accounts for 78 percent of total exports, may lose 1 million of the 1.6 million jobs in that industry). For these already poor countries, the shift will be devastating.

Second, the quotas were a good example of global economic engineering that made a positive difference. While quotas have been dismissed by framing them as “protectionism,” these quotas provided some ability for poor countries to develop some domestic manufacturing capacity. What was wrong with that? Indeed, you may recall that free-market advocates pushed the notion that poor countries, rather than rely on development loans, should create export-driven domestic industries. Which would lead to the simple conclusion that these 30 million people were not served well by global trade agreements and we need to construct economic relationships based on sustainability, not ideology.