The congressmen of the US House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee argued that the program, a unilateral anti-dumping measure taken by the US does not benefit US businesses and consumers.

The congressmen - Earl Blumenauer, Jim Ramstad, Mike Thompson, Jim Dermott, Joseph Crowley, and Ron Kind - wrote the surveillance puts a strain on relations with Vietnam, which was granted Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status by lawmaker earlier this year.

“We are deeply concerned that the disruption in trade caused by the import monitoring program is cutting away at many of the benefits of granting PNTR status to Vietnam. Even more troubling, these negative impacts come at no benefit to US apparel producers.”

They suggested that the monitoring only be applied to item groups that US producers have requested supervision of and there is evidence of “material injury”.

The letter concluded, “We stand ready to work with the DOC to ensure that the US economy receives the full range of benefits from granting PNTR status to Vietnam by limiting the application of the import surveillance and ensuring the greatest predictability for US importers, retailers, and consumers.”

Meanwhile, in a letter dated May 11 to Virginia B. Foote, President of US-Vietnam Trade Council, Stephen Lamar, Executive Vice President of American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) said that the AAFA is strongly against the DOC's decision to establish a supervisory mechanism against apparel imports from Vietnam.

“The AAFA believes that the DOC needs to first identify the domestic apparel production that is being hurt or that has the potential to be hurt by dumped imports from Vietnam [should there be a finding that there is dumping from Vietnam],” read the letter.

“The AAFA believes there is little support or interest in this monitoring among domestic apparel producers because much of what is produced domestically does not compete against Vietnamese imports.”

US retailers’ reaction

At a public hearing in Washington last month US retail firms had criticized the DOC’s monitoring against apparel imports from Vietnam, saying it would adversely impact both Vietnamese and Americans.

Ronald Shulman, chairman of giant retailer JC Penney Company, said the surveillance would hit the Vietnam textile industry and also retailers and consumers in the US.

The surveillance is an inappropriate misuse of government resources to monitor imports of products to possibly self-initiate anti-dumping proceedings though there were no domestic producers of the items, according to the US Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA).

RILA urged the department to chew over the serious consequences caused by the decision.

Representatives of the International Textile Group, the National Retail Federation, the Association of US Importers of Textile and Apparel, and Hampshire Group all objected to the surveillance mechanism and told the DOC to reconsider the decision.

The DOC began monitoring import of textile and apparel products from Vietnam after the latter acceded to the WTO in January, and will gather data on Vietnamese garment exports to the US in the first six months before making a decision on the monitoring program.

Source: Thanh Nien, VNA, Textile World Magazine –  Compiled by Dong Ha