As the Bush administration wraps up its 18-month long monitoring of apparel imports from Vietnam,
it has concluded there is no evidence of dumping and sees no cause for self-initiating any
anti-dumping investigations. Responding to pressure from the US textile industry and its supporters
in Congress, the Department of Commerce began monitoring imports from Vietnam shortly after Vietnam
was accepted into the World Trade Organization. At the time the program was started, US Trade
Representative Susan C. Schwab said it would run only until the end of the Bush administration.
Under the program, Commerce examined imports of trousers, shirts, underwear, swimwear and
sweaters and issued a report every six months. The department compared trends in unit values and
import levels from a wide variety of countries in Central America as well as Cambodia, India,
Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. In announcing results of
the final six-month survey, David Spooner, assistant secretary of commerce for import
administration, said: “This final investigation reveals that prices of Vietnam apparel are in line
with, and in most cases even exceed, other major suppliers.”
US Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel Executive Director Laura Jones, who has
been highly critical of the monitoring program from the outset, praised the department’s final
conclusion, and said: “The fact that three Administration reviews have consistently found no
evidence of dumping confirms that this program never should have been established in the first
place.” She charged that the monitoring forced importers to change sourcing plans, adding to costs
and undermining efficiencies and diverted apparel orders to other sources and “did not bring a
single order or job to the United States.”
Jones urged the incoming Obama administration to “focus on positive initiatives and not make
the mistake of thinking monitoring is a replacement for sound business decisions.”
November 25, 2008
