US Lifts Quota on Vietnamese Textiles, Garments

The United States officially announced the removal of quotas on Vietnam’s textiles and garments from January 11, when Vietnam becomes the 150^th WTO member, local Youth newspaper reported today.

 

The newspaper cited Matthew Priest, Chairman of the US Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA), as saying that quota, export visa and Electronic Visa Information System (ELVIS) relating to Vietnamese apparel will be officially lifted.

 

Accordingly, Vietnam’s garment and textile enterprises need only to complete the country’s customs procedures.

 

To cope with the US supervising mechanism on garments and textiles imported from Vietnam in exchange for the ASEAN country’s PNTR passage from the US Congress in late 2006, the enterprises proposed measures to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas).

 

Among garment, textile businesses, 86 per cent agree to export certificate issuance, 97 per cent favor application of minimum tariff management, and 82 per cent back the issuing of C/O of goods by Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Ministry of Trade’s Import Export Management Department.

 

However, up to now, no action has been taken by the US Department of Commerce regarding the Vietnam apparels-supervising mechanism.

 

(Youth, Vietnam & World Economy)