According to David Spooner, Assistant to Secretary of Commerce on imports issues, the US will make strong efforts to establish an applicable, transparent and open supervision mechanism. This mechanism solely aims to ensure that there will be no discrimination in pricing.

After a 2- day discussion in Beijing on trade subsidization and Chinese market economy, David Spooner, Assistant to Secretary of Commerce on imports issues, arrived in Vietnam in the morning of April 18th.

During his stay in Vietnam, Mr Spooner had meetings and discussions with the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS). He also met the representatives of US garment retailers and importers and consulted with representatives from Vietnamese Ministries of Trade, Industry and Foreign Affairs about Vietnamese supervision mechanism on textile and garments.

At the press conference in the afternoon of April 19th,  David Spooner said that the main message that they brought to Vietnam was that the US did not want their watch-dogs to have impacts on Vietnamese textile and garment industry. It also made commitments about cooperation with Vietnamese government and industries to keep the process as transparent and open as possible.

Vietnam’s apparel exports to the US has risen from $45million in 2001 to $3.8billion in 2007. This is a great and meaningful increase to both sides and Mr Spooner also emphasized that the US pledged to work for the development of bilateral trade between Vietnam and the US as well as for the fairness in the US trade law.

He has answered  the press questions referring to the US’s supervision mechanism on Vietnam’s textile and garments.

- Can you tell something about how US’s monitoring mechanism on Vietnam’s textile and garments has been applied and what are the differences between the anti-dumping tax and this mechanism?

The US has applied this mechanism from January 2007 after Vietnam’s formal membership of the WTO. At this time, we are just concentrating on supervising specific figures which are easy to collect such as figures on exports or Vietnam’s production statistics.

There is a great difference between the monitoring mechanism on Vietnam’s textile and garments and the anti-dumping tax. In case the anti-dumping tax is imposed, the US have to define whether there are any difference in the prices of Vietnamese goods among different markets and the US producers are badly-effected by Vietnam’s production or not. At present, we haven’t got this analysis and any anti-dumping lawsuit about Vietnam’s garments

- What are the impacts of this mechanism on the trade relations between the two countries since it is applied as well as the future of this relation?

The US apparel producers and importers and Vietnamese enterprises said that this mechanism has had impacts on the orders from Vietnam. However, when creating this mechanism, we have tried our best so that it will be easy to apply, transparent and have little impact on the trade relation between the two countries.

To some extent, the commercial relationship will be affected if the US’ anti-dumping prevention scheme is misunderstood. The textile and industry is used to the former quota scheme with the fixed import volume from Vietnam. With the anti-dumping regulations, what matters now is not the quantity. The supervision mechanism on Viet Nam’s garments is subject only to ensure that there is no discrimination in pricing.

The United States desires to enhance the trade relation with Vietnam, and I believe that this co-operation will flourish. More important is the fact that this supervision mechanism will end in 2008. Vietnam has joined the WTO, which will contribute dramatically to Vietnam’s economic development.

- Could you explain in more detail?

According to the statistics we got for the first 2 months, Vietnam’s export to the US has been going well. However, Vietnamese producers as well as importers and retailers in the US complain that the number of orders for the 3rd and 4th quarter is reducing because many retailers and importers still wait to see what US Department of Commerce (DoC) will do with this supervision mechanism.

- Does the US apply this scheme to other countries? If not, why Vietnam is the only one to be made to comply with?

In terms of import statistics, we collect from Vietnam as well as from other nations.

We have tighter supervision on Vietnam because of, to mention again, the fact that when the Congress approved the PNTR for Vietnam and Vietnam’s joining the WTO, two senators presented the draft law on which proposed to attach PNTR to textile and garment issue, protecting the rights of the corporations in the areas for which these senators represent.

To get the approval from the Congress for Vietnam’s joining WTO, the US government promised to the senators to have tight supervision and carry out prevention in case of violation.

We want to express that we don’t want the supervision mechanism to have impacts on the relation between the US and any other country.

- According to the result attained after your mission in Vietnam, how do you evaluate the possibility that Vietnam will infringe the US’s anti-dumping laws? And what will you tell the DoC, the US people and garment producers?
 
We committed to the senators to analyze the statistics twice a year. So it’s till too early to press any statement on whether there is any violation to the anti-dumping law. The main target of this mission is to listen to the points of Vietnam’s textile and garment companies about the supervision mechanism and give explanation to them.

About the report to the US DoC, we think it’s too early to affirm about the possibility of anti-dumping law violation. I want to express that we understand the possible reaction from Vietnam. Vietnam government used to have strong reaction to this matter. We also understand that Vietnam government will do their best to make sure that there will be no violation.

- As far as we know, in April 24th, the US DoC will hold a hearing before the Congress on this supervision mechanism. How do you find Vietnam’s preparation for this hearing?

It’s true that on April 24th, the US DoC will hold a hearing in front of the Congress about the supervision mechanism on textile and garment imported from Vietnam. And Vista expresses their hope to anticipate, or make presentation or give suggestions from Vietnam. I want to emphasize that the US will public all the relevant information, suggestions and comments. And we will consider all other suggestions and comments, even those from Vitas.