Apparel From Vietnam Gets Green Light
After one year of monitoring the price of apparel imported from Vietnam, the Bush administration has decided not to take any antidumping action against that country.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has been monitoring Vietnamese apparel imports since that country joined the World Trade Organization in January 2007. Several U.S. textile firms feared the Vietnamese would dump their goods, or sell them at a price cheaper than the cost of producing them, to gain clients in the United States.
However, the Commerce Department, after scrutinizing the price of trousers, shirts, underwear, swimwear and sweaters made in Vietnam, concluded that many of the prices were rising. Commerce also compared Vietnam’s import prices to those from Bangladesh, the DR-CAFTA (Dominican Republic–Central American Free Trade Agreement) countries, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Macau, Malaysia and the Philippines. It found there was insufficient evidence to initiate an antidumping investigation.
Federal officials made the announcement on May 6 after wrapping up a six-month investigation for the August 2007 through January 2008 period. A previous six-month investigation, held from January 2007 to July 2007, found no antidumping activity.
Antidumping monitoring will continue until President Bush leaves office early next year. The results of the next six-month study will be announced in September. “Commerce will continue our commitment to examine imports from Vietnam to ensure that apparel is not dumped into the U.S. market and threatening American manufacturers’ competitiveness,” Assistant Commerce Secretary David Spooner said.
Many apparel importers have been opposed to this monitoring, which makes producing clothes in Vietnam an uncertain proposition. “All that the monitoring program does is hold a false cloud over apparel sourcing from Vietnam,” said Laura Jones, executive director of the United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, a trade group headquartered in New York. “It does absolutely nothing to help U.S. textile manufacturers.” —D.B.
