Vietnam’s consistently high levels of growth in manufacturing in recent years have contributed significantly to reducing poverty as well as increasing foreign exchange
revenues. The garment and footwear industries have played a prominent role in this process; they are the two manufacturing sectors with the largest market share and also are among the sectors experiencing the highest growth. Any major impacts (positive or negative) to the manufacturing sector as a result of trade liberalisation will have major implications for the large numbers of low waged, unskilled, female and migrant workers who represent a large proportion of the total workers in the sector.
That this group of workers were very recently lifted out of poverty by the opportunity of waged labour in the garment and footwear sectors is also significant, since it increases the likelihood that downwards pressure on wages and/or productivity will cause them and their family members to return to their previous poverty levels. This chapter examines the links between trade and poverty through development in the context of the leather footwear and garment industries in Vietnam.