The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee has approved legislation extending the Department of Commerce’s (DOC’s) program of monitoring textile and apparel imports from Vietnam, and for the first time the monitoring would be expanded to include imports from China. As US textile manufacturers have searched for ways to soften the blow of the removal of import quotas on “ sensitive” categories of textile and apparel at year’s end, a monitoring program was seen as one approach. Textile and apparel importers, however, are strongly opposed to both the Vietnam monitoring program and extending it to China. In the latest report on Vietnam monitoring, the DOC said it has found no basis for initiating an anti-dumping case, and data from industry trade sources confirmed that conclusion.

The Vietnam monitoring was scheduled to end this year, but the legislation would continue it for another year.

A Senate appropriations bill does not include funds for the monitoring programs, so the differences would have to be ironed out in a House/Senate conference. In view of that, the outlook for the program remains uncertain.

July 1, 2008