NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS-HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY. ........................................................................ PANORAMA THE DOLLAR A DAY DRESS RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 6:03:05 ........................................................................ STEVE BRADSHAW: Some were sexy, some more demure, but one dress at London Fashion week was made to tell a story. It was modelled by actress Tamzin Outhwaite. TAMZIN OUTHWAITE: Do I have to wear a red nose or anything? BRADSHAW: On behalf of comic relief, and it was designed by a group of top London fashion students for a catwalk show with a difference. For 40 days Panorama travelled the world, finding materials that show how the world's trade system keeps millions in poverty. From the High Andes to Uganda. From Timbuktu to the Far East, we've talked to people who live on just a dollar or two a day and make the materials for clothes we like to buy. Our challenge to the students from London College of Fashion to make a world class dress from the stuff we bought, a dress worthy of the catwalk. TAMZIN: The idea of me on a catwalk is comic relief enough. BRADSHAW: Tonight, as our contribution to Friday's Red Nose Day, Panorama tells the story of a dress, a dress that shows how we harm the world's poor more through unfair trade than we help them with aid. The dollar a day dress. Every year the men in blue gather for a festival in the West African country of Mali. They're Tuareg tribesmen, nomads of the Sahara Dessert. They've ridden for days with their families to this oasis close to Timbuktu to play music and dance. It's a festival now famous across the world. We're here to buy some of their legendary cotton for our dollar a day dress, because Mali's cotton is at the centre of one of the world's great trade rows. To find out why, we drove South West to cotton growing country. Most of Mali's 12 million people make their living from farming, and about a third from cotton. Most cotton in Mali is grown by peasant farmers like Adema. The country he lives in, one of the ten poorest in the world. Four out of ten children are malnourished. Like two thirds of people in the countryside Adema's family drinks water that is unsafe. STEVE BRADSHAW Well short of real hunger this is about as destitute as it gets. This really is dollar a day land. Strange because his cotton harvest looks great. BRADSHAW: And does that come straight of the plant like that or… ? ADEMA DIAKITE: Yes, just like that. BRADSHAW: It's a good crop this year and it's also his main crop but he still can't make a decent living. Well we reckon this is about Adema's crop for the year and he's going to make about £80 out of it so that's about 160-150 something for the whole year, 3 quid a week out of which he's got to feed a whole extended African family. But why so poor? Mali should be okay. The rich nations say make sure your cotton is cheap and good quality and that's what Mali has done. But the US and the EU subsidise their cotton farmers, unfair competition keeping world prices down and making it harder for African farmers to work their way out of poverty. We've brought with us an Oxfam report detailing huge subsidies America has been paying its cotton farmers. Critics say they breach the West's commitment to free trade. We've got Tyler Farms Arkansas 7 million dollars; J.G. Boswell California 6 million dollars; and what does he make of this? MAN: He says that it's a very big money and if the government does it for a farmer that means that it's to kill the other farmers. BRADSHAW: It's killing the other farmers? MAN: Yes. BRADSHAW: The farmers here? MAN: Yes, here, yes. BRADSHAW: To help those living on a dollar or so a day the West gives over 50 billion dollars a year in aid worldwide. But it also gives about 300 billion dollars in subsidies to its own farmers, almost six times as much as it gives in aid, and that makes it much harder for countries to exploit their natural trade advantage selling farm products. And there's a political angle, the West wants to encourage Muslim democracies like Mali, but our farm subsidies alienate them. ADEMA DIAKITE Cotton farmer My message is we would like the US Government to stop the subsidies to US cotton farmers. The subsidies they give to their farmers, our government can't afford to give to us. We are a poor country and we need more money. BRADSHAW: In the capital Bamako the US Ambassador was lunching Peace Corps volunteers, many working among Mali's cotton farmers. They have first hand experience of why the price of cotton counts. PCV: My village finances most of the development work they do, like building schools, building a maternal health centre, with money that they get from their cotton. BRADSHAW: We met a farmer yesterday who says look, it's the American subsidies that are keeping me in poverty. What do you say to him? VICKI HUDDLESTON U.S. Ambassador, Mali What I say is, he is actually mistaken. He probably should be working in some other area. US subsidies probably impact this farmer at his level very, very little. What keeps Mali in poverty is lack of education, lack of good health care, lack of technology. BRADSHAW: This week American cotton subsidies were declared illegal by the World Trade Organisation, they're depressing world prices it said. But America is not yet committed to scrapping them. We hitched a lift back into town with our comic relief quest still in our mind. Just one other subject, do you know anything about the blue cloth that you find in the… VICKI: Oh yes, it's all around. BRADSHAW: Tell me about that. VICKI: Well it's just dyed this deep, deep, deep indigo, it's like a kind of reminds me of my son and daughter, because they were actually with me in Timbuktu just a couple of weeks ago and a fellow on the street came up with this wonderful blue turban. He said do you want to buy it (laugh) we bought it right out of his hand. BRADSHAW: So we set off back to the Sahara to buy some of that classic blue Mali cotton aselts. [stepping down from aircraft] Timbuktu. Timbuktu was once a great trading centre, but now the world's trade routes pass it by. It's a desolate place. We found just one man weaving Mali cotton, none of it blue. Mali exports most of its cotton for cash as the west urges it to do. But it doesn't make enough to start a decent sized textile industry of its own. So some in Mali say let's go back to the old days, let's keep our cotton here, to weave clothes for local people rather than joining in a trade game we'll never win. The Americans subsidise their cotton farmers. What is your complaint against this? AMINATA TRAORE Former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mali Hypocrisy. BRADSHAW: Hypocrisy. AMINATA: Hypocrisy. They are killing us while they say they are developing us. But we know they are lying. They define the rules of the game and it's really unfair. BRADSHAW: Aminata Traore is a world renowned writer. She says the rich countries' unfair trade practices show up what's wrong with the whole idea of development. AMINATA: We are buying from you, but what do you buy from us? Nothing. No, you don’t need us. Development has been successful for the developers but not for us. We are not developed. We are submitted more and more. I'm sorry. BRADSHAW: In the oasis outside Timbuktu the Tuareg Festival is reaching its climax. It's now becoming a West African Glastonbury. In the last few years the Tuareg have been joined by Western bands and Western fans, including Oxfam's Sally Baden. She thinks trade can work if it's fair and America's cotton subsidies she says, show it isn't. SALLY BADEN Economic Justice Poly Adviser Oxfam, West Africa Four billion dollars of subsidies to 25,000 farmers is not a distraction, and this is causing a 25% drop in world prices which affects 10-12 million people in West Africa. Unless the world trade system changes to enable people in poor countries to work their way out of poverty, they're never going to get away from being aid dependent countries, poor countries and have a sustainable development of their own. BRADSHAW: Time to buy some of that blue fabric we saw all around us but we were in for a surprise. [makes purchase] 6,000 central African francs. That's great. MAN: It's make of China. BRADSHAW: What's that? It's made in China… manufactured in China? Yes, all the blue cotton material we found was made in China, Mali again losing out in the trade game to the stronger competitor. We'd failed our first test, or so it seemed. But that night, as the band "Dessert Blues" was on stage, we noticed a trader with something blue that didn't look mass produced. Hi, how are you? MAN: Hi. BRADSHAW: Is this Chinese? MAN: No my friend, this is Mali cotton. (laughs) Mali king of cotton sir, and this is indigo, you see? This one has been made by Malian artist. BRADSHAW: At last, real blue cloth died indigo and made from Mali Cotton. For the trader it's a chance to restate a by now familiar complaint. MAN: These American are killing Mali cotton, yes, I'm sorry. BRADSHAW: This is just what we need to take back to London, so than you very much. MAN: Thanks my dear, you're welcome. Bye. BRADSHAW: For Mali's musicians, today's globalised economy is good news. Their music reaches around the world, and Mali's farmers may soon benefit too, as countries like the US are forced to scrap unfair subsidies. What we want to find out in the rest of our journey - whether free trade means fair trade. Back at the London College of Fashion we're working with eight second year students. Our challenge: fabric from each country we visit must be in the final dress. [to fashion students] This is what we brought back from Mali, it's dyed with local indigo. The Mali cotton went down well, ethnic not mass produced. STUDENT: I like it. BRADSHAW: It smells. STUDENT: It's nice [smelling cotton] BRADSHAW: Are you sure it smells nice because… STUDENT: [laughing] No, no, no, it's just got lifeline, because you can kind of tell where it comes from. It's not what we use… BRADSHAW: Problem is it's got genuine holes in it. STUDENT: Hand stitched. It's not even machine stitched, it's irregular completely. BRADSHAW: With the Mali cotton a hit, we wanted to find some more African fabric and to highlight the new problems that face poor countries as the world moves towards a free trade system. Our search took us close to the equator, to Uganda and it's capital Kampala. For help we turned to Godfrey Kayongo who runs the Garment Sellers Association here. We started looking, cheekily enough, through his own wardrobe. Godfrey, show me your wardrobe. GODFREY KAYONGO Chair, Market Traders' Association This is my wardrobe of all the things that I wear during my time of work, and I love them so much because I don’t buy so expensively but they are very nice stuff. BRADSHAW: Show me some of your things. GODFREY: Yeah, now let me start with this one. This one is from Marks and Spencer. When you buy stuff from Marks and Spencer you have the quality. BRADSHAW: But nice as his clothes were, there was something odd. For a start they weren't really African at all. Whether shirts or shoes, they were all… well.. Western. GODFREY: This one is from Paris. Pierre Cardin from Paris. BRADSHAW: Pierre Cardin. GODFREY: Yes. BRADSHAW: Try it on for me. It looks pretty good. GODFREY: Yeah. BRADSHAW: The mystery of Godfrey Kayongo's wardrobe was about to be revealed close by in the centre of Kampala. This is where ordinary Ugandans come to buy their clothes and it's Marks and Spencer's, it's British Home Stores and it's Tesco's all rolled into one and it's completely overwhelming. Almost everything in this vast market looks like they're cast offs, people in rich countries have thrown away – and that's because they are. [to man looking at jacket] Is that for you? MAN: Yeah. Nice eh? BRADSHAW: It's that way round isn't it. [assists lady looking at garment] Godfrey showed us round. So how much of the clothing here is second-hand? GODFREY: 95% of the clothing here is second-hand. BRADSHAW: Where does it come from? GODFREY: Various countries like United Kingdom, Canada, USA, and the rest of the European countries. BRADSHAW: But clothes arrive every day in big bundles. They've been given away to charities by people in rich countries like Britain. Do you like it? [to woman holding up lacy petticoat] WOMAN: Yeah. [laughing] BRADSHAW: [woman looking at T-shirt] Calvin Klein? GODFREY: Yeah. BRADSHAW: 50 cents. GODFREY: 50 cents. BRADSHAW: Good bargain? GODFREY: [laughing] She says the price is high. BRADSHAW: The charities sell them to importers who sell them on to the market traders, 40,000 of them and in a few years it's become a huge business. Like everyone, Ugandans love a bargain and there's always a size that fits. You're buying for yourself? WOMAN: [testing very large bra] Yeah, I'm buying. BRADSHAW: Does it fit? WOMAN: Yeah, it feels very good. [laughing] BRADSHAW: No limits on second-hand imports, very low tariffs, it's free trade at its most welcome. But the benefits of free trade can come at a price. Outside Kampala a run down industrial estate in the old colonial town of Jinga. EYASU: … since 1985, yes. BRADSHAW: The shop floor of Eyasu Sirak's garment factory used to be much busier. You were busy. You were making a lot more clothes. EYASU: We were very busy, about 300 suits a day. BRADSHAW: And what's changed? EYASU SIRAK Eladam Enterprises What changed – second-hand clothes started being imported. The import was growing tremendously. BRADSHAW: And what effect did that have on your factory and on the people you were employing? EYASU: As you see here, it's empty. We were employing 124 people, now we have around 37.. 38 people. BRADSHAW: But can you really blame second-hand clothes for that? EYASU: Yes, yes, nothing else to blame. BRADSHAW: In Jinga town Mr Sirak showed us more western cast offs. EYASU: You see, everything is second-hand, there is nothing new. BRADSHAW: Old clothes dumped on the world market, for the best possible motives. We give freely, they buy cheaply. All fine in theory but it's not helping Uganda work its way to prosperity says its Prime Minister. Professor APOLO NSIBAMBI Prime Minister, Uganda We are facing a dilemma because on the one hand second-hand clothes are cheap, they are affordable. On the other hand, they undermine the textile industry. So the government policy has to phase them out. BRADSHAW: So there's got to be some restrictions on free trade. P.M. NISIBAMBI: Yes, initially, yes, and eventually you have free trade because we have to be competitive. BRADSHAW: So you can't just dive into the deep end of free trade. NISIBAMBI: You can't.. you can't, it would be imprudent and very unwise. BRADSHAW: But it will be years before Ugandans could even hope to buy more locally made clothes. So meantime the government says do carry on giving. But there's one thing the government is trying to ban, second-hand underwear. EYASU: They're bleached. BRADSHAW: So what are we looking at? EYASU: The filth of the human being, that smear from the body of the other fellow. Look at that – huh? Don’t you find this is degrading for a human being? When are we going to start being equal, feeling equal? BRADSHAW: We still wanted to find some African fabric, so we had one last try at one of the country's two big textile plants. At Nytil they do make clothes for soldiers. After all, whoever heard of an African army kitted out in Western cast offs? Okay, so these are the African prints. MAN: Yes, these all are African prints. BRADSHAW: Can we have that? But tucked away in a corner, this factory did make a few traditional African printed fabrics. So we can take these back to England. MAN: Correct. BRADSHAW: Give them to our designers… MAN: Sure, and you make outfit out of it. BRADSHAW: Make an outfit out of it. MAN: Yeah, sure. BRADSHAW: Thank you very much. Thanks. Polite - but privately worried. Would the students think the prints mass produced and gaudy? We sent them back and used a video phone to check the response. [video phone] Okay, hi everybody, it's Steve, I'm in Kampala in Uganda. STUDENTS: Hi. BRADSHAW: [video phone] We've sent you back the best African materials we could find. They're made from Ugandan cotton. So if you have a look at those now, you'll see what we've sent you back. Now those clothes are really hard to find in Uganda, it's very hard to find genuine African clothes. We tried to sell it hard. [video phone] Now it's very unusual to see Ugandan people wearing that. They wear it if they can afford it. The first reaction was to confirm our fears. STUDENT: It looks like tablecloth. BRADSHAW: It was a disconcerting start. [video phone] I don’t know what you can make out of all of that. I wish you luck and see you next time. STUDENT: This one looks quite like a tablecloth. BRADSHAW: But then, second thoughts. STUDENT: I think it's quite nice with all this mass printing that's going on at the moment that we have something to actually work with. Fashionably incorrect to put all these colours together but that might just be something like a strong concept in itself. BRADSHAW: Mixing up the African prints, a secret formula. And how to do it? Pleats. STUDENT: I think that's beautiful, the way she's pleated that, and it would be quite nice if we had a big skirt with flares. STUDENT: Making the pleats work together in a way.. you know.. or even like having sort of panels of this. BRADSHAW: The dollar a day dress was starting to take shape. Next – something more luxurious and a story that shows how hard it is for poor countries to make free trade work, even when they start with a unique natural advantage. Our search took us to South America, to Peru and the Andes Mountains to meet the farmers who live on a dollar a day and the animals that could save them from poverty. This is the home of the Alpaca, their one big natural asset in the free trade world. It's wool prized by shoppers as a luxury if it's good quality. But too often it isn't. But a factory in the city of Arequipa they're sorting the good alpaca wool from the bad. Alonso Burgos helps run a business that makes Alpaca clothes and textiles for the world market. There are some fleeces that arrive here of the fine and pure quality that shoppers want. ALONSO BURGOS: Oh you can see the fantastic alpaca quality here. This is prime material. This is beautiful, very fine, this is the type of material I like to see all over. BRADSHAW: But much of what he's sent by the poor alpaca breeders in the mountains is too course, and the colours muddled. Finding out what's gone wrong meant a journey to some of the highest inhabited regions of the planet where we came across a rare herd of wild vicuna, their fine hair even more prized than their alpaca relatives. The communities here have long depended on alpaca for a living. The alpaca trade could be a way out of poverty. But it's an opportunity that's being wasted. We drove past a heard of alpaca being sheared. Alonso showed us what was wrong. Oh he's [alpaca] spitting. ALONSO: This is your normal high Andean very low quality flock where there has been a lot of intermix between llamas and alpacas and the product of that is wariso type. BRADSHAW: Hybrids. ALONSO: Hybrids. BRADSHAW: That means coarse, poor quality hair, or worse. ALONSO: This poor little guy has pretty much all the defects that one could see in an Alpaca is a two coloured animal, and that means that when he's shorn at a bit later stage, both colours will intermix and that means contamination, and he has more toes than he should have, so this guy will have problems walking, running, going for his food, mating. I'm sorry, but.. not a very bright future for him. BRADSHAW: Bad breeding technique. ALONSO: Bad breeding technique. BRADSHAW: Farmers here are starting to realise their stock is degraded, but they don’t have the resources to do anything about it. Are you making a good living out of this? WOMAN: [Alonso translates] She just make a little bit, just enough to eat. If she could improve her flock, if she could only have enough money to buy a new breeding stud. BRADSHAW: Do people around here have any help from the rich countries, international agencies helping to improve their flock? WOMAN: No. BRADSHAW: This is the top of the pass, it's about 5,000 metres which is a few hundred metres short of the altitude of Everest Base Camp. We were on our way to Pacomarka, Alonso's model alpaca ranch, as remote as it's tiny. Here Alonso showed us the world's first high altitude dating agency, exclusively for alpacas. Lady alpacas don’t get to choose their partners, despite appearances, instead breeding partners are chosen scientifically to produce the fine hair that shoppers want. If other farmers bred alpacas like this they might avoid the dollar a day future. But this best practice has so far not been rolled out across the rest of under resourced, cash strapped Peru. What's needed is for the West to transfer resources and expertise to the developed world, as it's so often promised. ALONSO BURGOS Inca Group If we don’t get any extra money come in to Peru from outside sources, then efforts like the one we are doing here in Pacomarka will be too small to change things around and we will just go down hill as we are going right now. BRADSHAW: So, with only a few true thoroughbreds around, a great global trading opportunity missed. Still, we couldn't resist showing off our find to the students back in London. STUDENTS: Hi Steve. BRADSHAW: [video phone] Hi can you hear me okay? STUDENTS: Yes. BRADSHAW: [video phone] I'm 4000 metres up here in the Andes Mountains in Peru and I'm bringing you back one of the finest textiles in the world and it comes from my friends these guys behind me. I'm just wondering if you have any idea what they are. STUDENTS: Llamas? Goat? BRADSHAW: [video phone] Goats! They're alpaca. Alpaca. Well I'm going to try and introduce you to one of my friends here. We at an alpaca wrangler to help us. This is a beautiful thoroughbred alpaca of the kind you don’t often see in the Andes these days, big wide eyes like his camel relatives. He's got beautiful soft hair. We'll bring some of this back and you can judge for yourselves. Alright, great, well goodbye from the Andes and from Alpacaland. So goodbye to Alonso's pedigree alpacas. What we were to hear next, how the rich countries are succeeding where Peru is failing. In the provincial capital Arequipa we met American alpaca breeder Mike Safley who says some of the best alpacas have been exported to the rich countries which can now use them to compete with Peru. MIKE SAFLEY United States Alpaca breeder It's kind of like the genie is out of the bottle. They've gone to England, they've gone to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Italy. BRADSHAW: Mike Safley uses breeding expertise unavailable to poor Andean farmers. He's trying to share it, but he too reckons more help is needed. MIKE: .. some work with animal scientists that could show them how to select the best animals. Within a few generations we'd start to completely change the complexion or the quality of the herds that they're raising. BRADSHAW: And what would that mean for their life? MIKE: Oh it could mean double their income, maybe even triple their income if they could really produce the superior fibre. BRADSHAW: Meantime Alonso's firm does export the fine alpaca when they can find it. Time to take some back. So we've decided to go for the blue alpaca and the red, and it's definitely the best stack I've found so far. We just hoped it would go down okay with the students – and it did. STUDENT: It's really lovely, isn't it. It's beautiful. It's very kind of furry. You could actually make a teddy bear. (laughs) BRADSHAW: The challenge, how to use luxury alpaca, which is still quite thick, in the dollar a day dress. The students' answer was simple – make a dollar a day jacket. STUDENT: That would be nice for jacket material or… STUDENTS: It would be really nice. BRADSHAW: To check out their idea for the dollar a day dress or outfit the students went to the studio of Alice Shreeve and Hannah Coniam, the designers behind the Belle and Bunty label. They used to be London College of Fashion students themselves. ALICE: So you've gone for a dress and a jacket for their catwalk show. Did you explore them using the pleats on different areas of the body and how that kind of affects in a woman's shape, silhouette? BRADSHAW: They'd offered to showcase the dollar a day dress at a show during London Fashion week. STUDENT: That really works, like pleating such a graphic print. BRADSHAW: But time for a reality check. A dress made from fabrics we'd chosen was about to be premiered at a major fashion show in front of 300 people. ALICE: Are you aware that you've got to take all angles of this outfit into account because the catwalk is incredibly unforgiving and everyone is going to be…. BRADSHAW: Almost there. But we wanted one more fabric, and this time from a country that's done what the West asked of it but still faces disaster. We're in a corner of South East Asia that's seen economies, even whole empires collapse before. In Cambodia history has a way of making anything seem like a passing fashion. At Angkor Watt, the monumental relics of a thousand year old lost civilisation overgrown by jungle. Kings and priests used to walk these corridors. We've come to find the unique material they wore. Meet our new friends. These Cambodian works are unique. They exude a golden thread to make their cocoons, hoping to emerge as moths – in vain [batch frying in pan]. The thread is naturally golden silk, the only such kind in the world. There are other uses for the cocoons [edible] though not as profitable. Silk growers and weavers make again a dollar or two a day. We found the material we were looking for and sent it back to the students in London. The dollar a day dress finally revealed. It's Tamzin's last fitting before the big show. TAMZIN: It fits much better now, thanks girls, well done. BRADSHAW: The pleats and the colour clash have paid off. The alpaca has gone into the jacket. The rare Cambodian silk has gone into the lining. In just three days time our designers' efforts will be put to the test in a trial by catwalk. TAMZIN: Okay, I'm set, let's go. BRADSHAW: Back in Cambodia the end of the harvest. There are few jobs in silk farms now. The industry was consumed in the 70s along with much of Cambodian society in the genocide committed by the notorious Khmer Rouge Guerrillas. A tower of sculls stands as a memorial to those who died at their hands, well over a million. But out of the devastation came something remarkable. Every day over a quarter of a million women poor through the gates of Cambodia's garment factories, women who make clothes we wear. A decade ago there were hardly any garment job. But Cambodia did what the West asked and industrialised its way into the modern world. Now garment women make almost all Cambodia's exports, and according to the UN's international labour organisation, conditions are good by Asian standards. GIRL: [through translator] She makes like 60 dollars a month and half of it is for her here for the food and accommodation, and the other half is for her family home. BRADSHAW: Is it a good job or does she feel exploited? GIRL: She said it's quite an easy job, you know, nobody exploited and it's a good job. BRADSHAW: What all these women owe their jobs to is a kind of positive discrimination. Like some other poor countries, Cambodia was able to develop a garment industry because it used to be guaranteed a market. Under special international rules for the industry Cambodia was given a quota of clothes it could be sure of selling. But this year the quotas were scrapped. Under the old rules countries like Cambodia were guaranteed a slice of the world market, but in January the rules for the garment trade changed, and poor countries now have to compete with each other in the free trade jungle in which only the fittest and the fiercest survived. So the once highly regulated world garment industry is now just another free market. In Cambodia they worry that will lead to what's being called a race to the bottom. Some global companies placing orders in countries where labour is cheapest and trades unions weakest. So with unions strong in Cambodia, labour leaders like Chhorn Sokha now fear massive job losses. CHHORN SOKHA Union Leader We can see that with free trade investors couldn't care less about the conditions or anything like that. They will go to the places where they can find cheap labour and get plenty of profits. BRADSHAW: This is the vision Cambodians fear, becoming paupers as the Chinese pass them by. In Phnom Peng the Chinese community were celebrating their New Year. Unlike personal fortunes the future of the garment industry may be easy to foretell, jobs going to China. China has huge economies of scale and no strong trade unions like Cambodia's. China, it is widely feared, could be the big winner in the race to the bottom. Potentially plunging millions of Cambodians back into poverty. Cambodia's only hope, using high labour standards as an advantage. CHAM PRASIDH Minister of Commerce, Cambodia We want to put the buyer into a situation where they have to choose. On one side they have Chinese product, cheap, good quality, can be delivered very fast, and they can make whatever you want. And on the other side – Cambodian product, same good quality but maybe more expensive because of labour compliance. But one thing is guaranteed is that job brand name is protected and you are not going to face any possible boycott in the future because of you are sourcing your product from a sweat shop. BRADSHAW: Here in Cambodia a whole generation of women have been empowered by the garment industry. Outside the factory men beg from women. But if shoppers in the rich world don’t buy from countries with decent working conditions, the garment industry may be just another phase in Cambodia's troubled history. PRASIDH: If the garment sector cannot survive in Cambodia it means the whole total economy is going to collapse, so it's really a big havoc in Cambodia. BRADSHAW: At a conference in Phnom Peng Bill Clinton is putting his weight behind Cambodia's attempt to preserve good labour standards in a free trade world. BILL CLINTON: Over the past decade Cambodia has shown an extraordinary ability to emerge from its difficult past. BRADSHAW: Backing him up, the President of the World Bank which lends money to poor nations. He wants the world to consider new ideas to make sure free trade doesn't threaten workers' rights, like making decent labour standards a condition of loans to poor countries. If the rich nations don’t do more to help the poor, he warns, the world will become a much more dangerous place. JAMES WOLFENSOHN President of the World Bank Well I'm more optimistic than I was a few months ago, but I've been now around this poverty game for too long and I don’t have much faith in rich people looking after poor people. They don’t yet seem to understand that they're interdependent, and that rich people can't stay rich if poor people don’t have hope, because if they don’t have hope, you don’t have peace, you don’t have markets. So my hope is that people will decide that they need to have a more equitable world before it's forced on them. And so I'm marginally hopeful but the world has not been terribly intelligence in recent times and I hope it's more intelligence as we go forward. BRADSHAW: Slowly the world is moving towards a free trade system that will benefit poor countries, but as we found, free trade isn't always fair. The fragile economies of poor countries may struggle to compete with the West's technological might and increasingly China's economies of scale. Free trade can help, but in a world that is already unequal it can do harm as well as good. Back home it's London fashion week and Tamzin is about to model the dollar a day dress. TAMZIN: A little under made-up I think. I feel a bit naked. BRADSHAW: Announcing the outfit – Jamie Theakston. JAMIE THEAKSTON: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Red Nose Day is back on Friday 11th March, raising big money and hopefully some big laughs as well on BBC1. BRADSHAW: So this is it. TAMZIN: This is the dress. BRADSHAW: It's amazing. It's great. How do you feel in it? TAMZIN: I feel really good in it. It feels like it's got a lot of history or maybe it's because I know where it's all come from, and yeah, I feel quite proud to wear it. BRADSHAW: Where's the Mali? Where's the cotton from Mali? TAMZIN: Oh the Mali is here. BRADSHAW: That's the cotton from Mali. That's the Cambodian silk.. that's the real stuff, the golden thread. Thank you very much. TAMZIN: Thank you. BRADSHAW: Thanks for modelling it. Good luck. TAMZIN: Thank you very much. BRADSHAW: And thank you very, very much for rising to our challenge. TAMZIN: Well done girls. The dollar a day dress. BRADSHAW: Over a billion people live on a dollar a day or less. JAMIE: So would you please put your hands together for the fragrant Tamzin Outhwaite who will be…. BRADSHAW: Their story is coming together in the dollar a day dress. [applause at the catwalk] If you want to tell us what you think about the issues raised in tonight's film, you can comment on our website, and the discussion continues tomorrow night on News 24 at 7.30, and don’t forget Red Nose Day this coming Friday. _________ www.bbc.co.uk/panorama CREDITS Reporter STEVE BRADSHAW Camera DEAN JOHNSON TONY POOLE Sound TONY PASFIELD Online Editor BOYD NAGLE Dubbing Mixer PHITZ HEARNE With thanks to London College of Fashion: YASMEN ALKHATIB MI SUK KIM KRISTINA NILSSON NAIA RICO GENEVIEVE SIBAYAN SACHI TAKAHASHI GUDRUN VRABEC SARAH WOODHEAD Production Co-ordinator JO WADE Web producer ALEX MURRAY Film Research EAMONN WALSH Research KATHLYN POSNER AMANDA VAUGHAN-BARRAT Post Production Co-ordinator LIBBY HAND Production Manager GINNY WILLIAMS Production Executive EMANUELE PASQUALE Film Editor GERAINT EVANS Assistant Producers LUCY WILLMORE DEBORAH DWEK Producer HUW MARKS Deputy Editors ANDREW BELL FRANK SIMMONDS Editor Mark Robinson 16 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Transcribed by 1-Stop Express, 3 Southwick Mews, London W2 1JG Email: panorama@bbc.co.uk