Vietnam’s Apparel Exports Show Robust Growth in January
Asia Pulse via Yahoo! Asia News
HANOI, Feb 23 Asia Pulse – Vietnam’s textile exports to the US posted vigorous growth of 82 per cent last month over the same period last year, with revenues reaching US$167 million, Nguyen Duc Thanh, a senior Ministry of Trade official, said.
Vietnam furthermore exported more than $100 million in garments to the EU in January, up 50 per cent from the corresponding month last year. The country witnessed a modest clothing export growth to the EU of 13 per cent after the block on quotas was suspended.
Some experts have also attributed the export growth to the fact that China, Vietnam’s leading rival in the garment export sector, had begun controlling its robust export growth to these markets in a bid to avoid a reimposition of quotas or anti-dumping suits.
The positive performance in this market stemmed from a more open and appropriate trade regime that allocated quotas flexibly on exporters’ contracts.
To utilise limited quotas from the US market, with predicted value this year of $1.8 billion, the Ministry of Trade urged exporters use up their allocated quotas.
If exporters fail to use allocated quotas until later in the year, said Thanh, they would risk penalties such as forfeiture of fees on deposit. Deposit fees ranged from VND10,000 to VND15,000 ($0.95) for a dozen “best-selling” products.
The fee rates were appropriate to Vietnamese enterprises in light of the fact that average fees for a dozen “best-selling” items from China were $15-16.
Thanh said the ministry had considered appropriate levels carefully because high fees would damage firms while low ones would not be sufficient incentive for companies to use quotas effectively.
