By cambodia's modest standards, Tuch Phearom is a success story. For the past four years she has been sewing sweaters, a job that now earns her as much as $80 per month. The money has helped her family build a new wooden house that sits on stilts, leaving room for the chickens, pigs, and cattle to sleep and forage below. And her wages have allowed her father to expand the plot of land he farms to 4.5 hectares. The winds of global commerce, though, may soon blow right through Tuch's humble prosperity. The U.S. and Europe next year are set to remove a 30-year-old regime of strict import quotas on clothing and textiles, which could put Tuch and the 1,300 other workers at the Thai-Pore Garment Manufacturing Co. out on the street. The reason: Once the quotas are lifted, a handful of countries―most notably China―are expected to quickly dominate the clothing industry worldwide, using their low wages, modern factories, and good infrastructure to put outfits like Thai-Pore out of business. "I'm worried my family will have nothing," says the 24-year-old Tuch. Adds her boss, Managing Director Roger Tan: "China is a major, major threat."
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