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Nixon and Kimchi: How the Garment Industry Came to Bangladesh

Planet Money

I admit it: The reference to Nixon and kimchi in the headline got me to read it, but this piece on how Bangladesh came to be a world center for apparel manufacturing held my interest. Back in the 1970s, the newly formed country of Bangladesh needed something —anything — to build an economy on, so Bangladeshi businessmen looked to South Korea, which had climbed out of poverty by manufacturing textiles. As people from both countries collaborated to build a textile industry in Bangladesh, most of the culture clash seemed to focus on food: Kimchi made the Bangladeshis vomit, and the South Koreans found the Bangladeshi food repellent. (Nixon’s role in the story has to do with global trade limits, which favored Bangladesh once South Korea had hit an export quota.)