VIỆN NGHIÊN CỨU QUẢN LÝ KINH TẾ TRUNG ƯƠNG

CỔNG THÔNG TIN KINH TẾ VIỆT NAM

Tin mới

Is apparel export turnover of $7bil feasible?

06/08/2010 - 196 Lượt xem

Vietnam’s textile and garment companies hope to export $7bil worth of apparel in 2007, the first year of the WTO period. The Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vinatas) le Quoc An talked about the target.

Vietnam successfully attracted many foreign invested projects in the textile and garment sector in 2006. These include the Republic of Korea’s Global Dyeing’s project, which is expected to have the capacity of 18,000 tonnes of products every year, Taiwan’s Formosa’s project on producing fibre, the Phong Phu – ITG joint venture’s project on the biggest dyeing complex in Hoa Khanh Industrial Zone, and Malaysia’s project on a weaving-dyeing-sewing complex in Chu Lai Open Economic Zone.

In 2006, Vietnam’s textile and garment industry had to cope with a lot of difficulties: input material prices skyrocketed, while output prices decreased sharply as the result of global competition. Meanwhile, Chinese illegally imported apparel products flooded the domestic market. Despite the big difficulties, Vietnam still earned the turnover of $5.8bil, up by 20% over the previous year. Exports to the US reached $3.1bil (up by 21%), to the EU, $1.2bil (up by 36%), and to Japan, $640mil (+5.3%).

Vietnam has become an official member of the WTO. Do you think that WTO membership will bring more favourable conditions for Vietnam’s textile and garment industry?

Apparel exports will not be limited by the quota scheme any more. Now Vietnamese companies can export as much as they can. The member countries of the WTO will reduce tariffs on Vietnam-made products, which will pave the way for Vietnam-made products to penetrate foreign markets. Foreign investment in the textile and garment industry is expected to increase considerably in the WTO period.

Nevertheless, Vietnamese enterprises will have to cope with many challenges. First, enterprises will have to compete with China-made and India-made products right in the home market as the tax on apparel will be lowered from 50% to 20%, and on fabric from 40% to 12%. Second, the US, though it has removed the quota scheme, it has installed a new barrier by setting up a supervision mechanism over Vietnam’s apparel exports. The mechanism is not only worrying Vietnamese exporters, but also US importers.

How will textile and apparel companies prepare for the anti-dumping lawsuits?

Soạn: HA 1004943 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

The US is drawing up the mechanism on supervising the exports from Vietnam. There are five categories of products which will be the focus of the US agencies, including shirts, trousers, swimwear, sleepwear and sweaters. The US side will take statistics once every six months, which will be the basis for possible investigations. It would be very difficult if the US agencies take investigations over Vietnam’s exports. Vietnamese enterprises and state management authorities should cooperate closely with each other to control export prices and the export volume to the US. In addition, enterprises must say ‘no’ to exports of non-Vietnam sourced products (apparel products made in other countries are sometimes transferred to Vietnam for re-export to the US, which is considered a kind of trade fraud).

Will the difficulties make the 2007 export plan unfeasible?

I still believe that Vietnamese companies will be able to export $7bil worth of products this year. The export growth rate depends a lot on the competitiveness of enterprises. However, enterprises should not focus on the US as the only market; they should seek many other new markets.

What about the domestic market?

The domestic market now accounts for 60% of the total turnover of the textile industry, and 30% of the total turnover of the garment industry. Though foreign made products will enter the market as the result of the tax reduction, I still believe that local enterprises will succeed in the home market as they know well the taste of Vietnamese customers and they have good distribution networks.

Source: Tuoi tre