According to the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), US importers have not placed orders for the third quarter of 2007. US importers will only make decisions in August, when the US Department of Commerce (DOC) makes comments under the framework of the textile and garment imports monitoring programme imposed on Vietnam-sourced apparel products.

Now, US importers who fear that DOC will make comments unfavourable for imports from Vietnam are trying to delay signing contracts. They may exclude Vietnam from the list of apparel suppliers if DOC releases unfavourable judgements in August.

Vietnam’s apparel exports are expected to fetch $7.35bil in 2007, an increase of 27% over 2006. Export turnover witnessed an increase of 24.3% only in the first five months of the year with the average monthly export turnover of $537mil. If the rate maintains for the whole year, the total export turnover for 2007 would reach $6.5bil only, far below the targeted level.

If the current situation cannot be improved, Vietnam will find it very difficult to fulfill the yearly export plan, since the US consumes 55% of Vietnam’s apparel exports. In 2006, the US imported $3.04bil worth of apparel from Vietnam.

After Vietnam joined the WTO, the US removed the quota scheme on Vietnam-sourced imports, but then decided to apply the textile and garment imports monitoring programme. The decision has been worrying US importers and retailers who dare not sign contracts with Vietnamese partners. The monitoring scheme has forced Vietnam to apply measures to control apparel exports itself in an effort to avoid possible anti-dumping lawsuits.

Diep Thanh Kiet, Deputy Chairman of the HCM City Knitting, Embroidery and Textile Association, said that there were many nonsensical points in the monitoring scheme. Among apparel exporters shipping goods to the US, Vietnam just ranks 9th in export quantity and 6th in export value. Meanwhile, only China, the biggest exporter to the US, is facing the safeguard measures from the US, while other exporters bigger than Vietnam, are not being burdened by any monitoring programmes.

Vietnam just accounts for 3% of the US total apparel imports; therefore, it cannot be a threat to the textile and garment industry. The average export unit price of Vietnam-made products in 2006 was $2.96, much higher than the US average import unit price at $1.79, and higher than the prices offered by other countries.

If the US raised an anti-dumping investigation on Vietnam-sourced apparel products, it would cause big damages to Vietnam’s textile and garment industry, and make 1mil workers jobless.