Amy A. Quark - Global Rivalries: Standards Wars and the Transnational Cotton Trade

AMY A. QUARK is assistant professor of sociology at the College of William and Mary.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2013 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 2013.

Printed in the United States of America

22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-05053-9 (cloth)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-05067-6 (paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-05070-6 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Quark, Amy A., author.

Global rivalries : standards wars and the transnational cotton trade / Amy A. Quark.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-226-05053-9 (cloth : alkaline paper) ISBN 978-0-226-05067-6 (paperback : alkaline paper) ISBN 978-0-226-05070-6 (e-book)

1. Cotton tradeStandards. 2. International trade. 3. Cotton tradeGovernment policy. I. Title.

HD9070.5.Q37 2013

382'.1351dc23

2013003410

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

Global Rivalries

Standards Wars and the Transnational Cotton Trade

AMY A. QUARK

The University of Chicago Press
CHICAGO AND LONDON

New [international] standards can be the source of enormous wealth or the death of corporate empires. With so much at stake, standards arouse violent passions.

JAMES BARCIA, US congressman and member of the Subcommittee on Environment, Technology, and Standards (US House of Representatives 2001:19, as cited in Bthe and Mattli 2011:12)

Contents

Illustrations

FIGURES

TABLES

BOXES

Acronyms

AAA

Agricultural Adjustment Act

ABRAPA

Associao Brasileira dos Produtores de Algodo, or the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers

ACA

African Cotton Association

ACFSMC

All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives

ACSA

American Cotton Shippers Association

AFCOT

Association Franaise Cotonnire, or the French Cotton Association

AMCOT

American Cotton Marketing Cooperatives

AoA

Agreement on Agriculture

AQSIQ

General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (China)

ARS

Agricultural Research Service (US)

ASTM

American Society for Testing and Materials

ATC

Agreement on Textiles and Clothing

BCA

Bangladesh Cotton Association

CAI

Cotton Association of India

CCA

China Cotton Association

CCC

Commodity Credit Corporation

CFA

La Communaut Financire dAfrique, or the Financial Community of Africa, includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cte dIvoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Guinea-Bissau

CFC

Common Fund for Commodities

CFDT

La Compagnie Franaise pour le Dveloppement des Textiles, or the French Textile Development Company

CFIB

China Fiber Inspection Bureau

Chinatex

China National Textiles Import and Export Corporation

CICCA

Committee for International Cooperation among Cotton Associations

CIETAC

China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission

CIQ

China Inspection and Quarantine

CIRAD

Centre de Coopration Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Dveloppement, or the Center for International Cooperation on Agricultural Research for Development

CIRCOT

Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology (India)

CNCRC

China National Cotton Reserves Company

COPACO

The marketing arm of DAGRIS

CSITC

Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing for Cotton

DAGRIS

Dveloppement des Agro-Industries du Sud (formerly CFDT)

ECC

European Cotton Confederation

EPC

Electronic Product Code

EU

European Union

GATT

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

GCC

Global commodity chain

HVI

High Volume Instrument

ICA

International Cotton Association

ICAC

International Cotton Advisory Committee

ICCS

International Calibration Cotton Standards

ICE

Intercontinental Exchange

IEC

International Electrochemical Commission

IMF

International Monetary Fund

ISO

International Organization for Standardization

ITC

International Trade Centre

ITMF

International Textile Manufacturers Federation

ITU

International Telecommunication Union

LCA

Liverpool Cotton Association

MFA

Multi-Fibre Arrangement

NCC

National Cotton Council (US)

NDRC

National Development and Reform Commission (China)

NIEO

New International Economic Order

NYCE

New York Cotton Exchange

RFID

Radio Frequency Identification

SAP

Structural Adjustment Program

SFI

Short Fiber Index

SPS

Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

STE

State trading enterprise

TBT

Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade

TRQ

Tariff Rate Quota

UN

United Nations

USDA

United States Department of Agriculture

WTO

World Trade Organization

Acknowledgments

It is daunting to consider the vast number of people that have made this book possible. The transnational scope of this research was facilitated by a number of contacts within the cotton industry who gave generously of their time, insights, and industry networks. Having the opportunity to follow the networks of power and resistance in the cotton industry was an experience in and of itself. I would like to thank all those who helped to make that possible, from those who opened their homes to me in Benin, including Fay and Simon Akindes and Ereeq Hermann and his family, to those who helped me maneuver through the linguistic and cultural differences in Beijing and Shanghai, and everything in between.

A number of people have given of their time to read the entire manuscript in various forms and to discuss it with me at length. For this I want to extend great thanks to Neil Brenner, Jane L. Collins, A. Claire Cutler, Brent Kaup, Robert Keohane, John Ohnesorge, Gl Ozyegin, Elizabeth Ransom, Andrew Schrank, Gay Seidman, Michael Tierney, Maurits van der Veen, Erik O. Wright, and Jonathan Zeitlin. These folks have surely strengthened the book tremendously. Jane Collins, in particular, has been a constant sounding board and cheerleader in this project and has carefully read many drafts of the book. Over the years it took to complete this book, I have also had useful conversations with Michael Burawoy and Harriet Friedmann, which have refined my thinking. Others who have been less involved in this manuscript but have nonetheless had a lasting influence on my approach to sociology include Stephen Bunker and especially JoAnn Jaffe.

I have been fortunate to have strong institutional support while working on this book. Work on this project began at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where I enjoyed countless stimulating intellectual exchanges and developed many lasting friendships in the Departments of both Sociology and Rural Sociology (now Community and Environmental Sociology). I have since enjoyed the support of fantastic colleagues at the College of William & Mary, where much of the hard work of book-writing has occurred. I also had the privilege of spending seven months on a research fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. The generous support of the Institute allowed me the luxury of time to revise the manuscript, and the engaging intellectual environment kept me inspired. In particular, I benefited from conversations with Sigrid Quack and her working group on Institution-Building across Borders. Finally, the arguments in the book have been consistently sharpened through engagements with insightful audiences at the University of Amsterdam, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, the University of Wisconsin, the American Sociological Association, and the Rural Sociological Society.