Mr. Clinton took those actions because of the military junta's repression of the democratic opposition and its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The cable was obtained from Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who along with Senator Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican, and Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has called for the ban on apparel imports from Myanmar. And by importing all this apparel from there, we're putting close to half a billion dollars into their coffers every year. Most of Myanmar's garment factories, the cable states, have been financed by Korean, Taiwanese and Hong Kong manufacturers that have turned to Myanmar because they are bumping up against quotas imposed by the United States limiting imports from their countries. Myanmar, by contrast, has unfilled import quotas to the United States.
Low pay is a major attraction for foreign manufacturers, the cable suggests.
The lowest paid workers are trainees who receive 5,000 kyat per month or about U.S. 8 cents an hour. Earlier this week, the State Department denounced Myanmar in its annual human rights report, finding that the military government deprived the most basic social and political rights. Last November, the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, recommended, in its strongest sanctions ever, that the organization's 175 member states review their business dealings with Myanmar because of the widespread use of forced labor there. Nautica and Jordache officials did not return telephone calls.