Vietnam Garment Export: US Door still Opens

So far, US Customs Office has not announced statistics of Vietnamese garment exports for supervision by US Department of Commerce. The case of anti-dumping lawsuit is unlikely as the price reduction of delicate CATs is less than one per cent and with small market share. For instance, the price of T-shirt is down 0.7 per cent compared to last year, or increased only by 0.09 per cent.

 

According to Mr Le Van Dao, Secretary General of Vietnam Apparel Association, orders by American importers has increased by 20 per cent. Many Vietnamese exporters have already received American orders for the fourth quarter of 2007 and early next year. Saigon Garment 3 has received a big number of orders, increasing from 120,000-150,000 products to 200,000 products a month.

 

Ms Nguyen Thi Hai Bao, Director of Hai Bao Garment Company (Hanoi) said that her company has also received American orders for 2008.

 

For her part, Ms Ninh Thi Ty, Director of Ho Guom Garment Company complained that due to the supervision mechanism. American importers are over-cautious with Vietnamese garment. It affected directly Vietnamese garment industry. So far, no stringent policy is taken against Vietnamese garment and American importers started coming back to their Vietnamese partners.

 

Some experts have sounded a warning that as American market consumes nearly 60 per cent of Vietnamese garment export and growth rate in early 2007 was 34 per cent compared to the same period last year, to be on the safe side, Vietnamese exporters must expand to other markets such as Japan with 13 per cent in the first seven months and EU nearly 18 per cent. The two markets will certainly increase Vietnamese export turnover”. In 2008, quota will no longer apply to Chinese garment in EU market; challenge will be bigger for Vietnamese businesses. Precaution is necessary and time is running out, more caution, less loss; especially when American supervision mechanism is still hanging over Vietnamese garment industry.

 

Ministry of Industry and Trade has also advised Vietnamese businesses to increase the export of high-quality products instead of low-quality ones.

 

According to Vietnam Customs Office, some CATs under American supervision have reduced prices in the first half of 2007 by 1,18-15.77 per cent : CAT341/641 by 32 per cent, CAT 647/648 decreased 13.68 per cent. US Department of Commerce may rely on those statistics to apply supervision unfavourable to Vietnamese garment.

 

Reviewing the overall situation, Mr Le Quoc An, President of Vietnam Apparel Association, reaffirmed that the growth rate of Vietnamese garment industry will continue at 7.3-7.5 per cent as in the past seven months, Vietnamese businesses have already expanded to all other markets, instead of focusing only on American market.