HA NOI — US garment importers on Tuesday applauded the decision of theUS Department of Commerce (DOC) to terminate monitoring of apparelimports from Viet Nam.

DOC officials last week said that, after reviewing the third six-months of data from their import monitoring programme, there was insufficient evidence to warrant a dumping investigation.

"This final investigation reveals that prices of Vietnamese apparel are in line with, and in most cases even exceed, other major suppliers, including Central America," said US assistant secretary of commerce for import administration David Spooner.

"The fact that three administrative reviews have consistently found no evidence of dumping confirms that this monitoring program never should have been established in the first place," said Laura Jones, executive director of the US Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA).

Jones strongly criticised the US garment makers who initiated the DOC inquiry. "It forced our members to reconsider sourcing plans, adding costs, undermining efficiencies and diverting apparel orders to other suppliers, but it did not bring a single order or job to the United States," she said. "A discriminatory monitoring program [was] an unjustified and useless abuse of agency resources and processes, diverting attention from meaningful steps that would create jobs for American workers."

Jones added that "the market is working in Viet Nam. Prices are being set through the give-and-take of negotiations between US buyers and manufacturers with operations in Viet Nam. The DOC should be credited for recognising that reality."

Viet Nam Textile and Apparel Association chairman Le Quoc An also expressed approval of the DOC decision.

He said he hoped the DOC would put an end to the programme "in time" to promote trade in textiles and garments between the two countries but warned that local producers still had to consider carefully and select high-value contracts for garment exports to the US in a bid avoid dumping conflict in the future.

Despite the DOC monitoring programme, Viet Nam shipped almost $4 billion worth of textiles and garments to the US during the first nine months of this year, a 22.9 per cent increase over the same period last year, making it the US’s second largest clothing supplier after China.

The country’s total apparel export turnover this year is estimated to reach around $9 billion, more than a half of which will come from the US market, according to An. — VNS