Viet Nam's apparel and garments exports slightly rise by 0.1 per cent to over US $2 billion in the first half of the current year. An industry veteran warned that the export turnover for the whole year will be at $4.8 billion, about $400 million less than anticipated.
Insiders credited the performance to a recession in the US and EU markets.
According to the Ministry of Industry, the sector earned $871 million from US exports in the first half of 2005, about 3 per cent lower than the same period last year. The export value to the EU was $255 million, dropping by 5.3 per cent.
The drop originally stemmed from harsh competition with Chinese rivals following the introduction of the free quota system early this year.
But the quotas applied on Vietnamese garments by the US, which makes up 50 per cent of the total export figures, also cause great difficulties.
Among the 25 clothing categories that have quotas applied by the US, the ministries of Trade, and Industry grant Export Licences (E/Ls) automatically for 13 categories, but businesses must register directly to gain access to quotas on the remaining 12 items.
To boost exports to the US and create favourable conditions for exporters to access quotas, the ministry has recently decided to continue to grant E/Ls for the remaining 12 items.
The categories include: Cat. 341/641 (cotton and synthetic shirts for women), Cat 345 (cotton sweater), Cat 447 (woollen trousers), and Cat 645/646 (synthetic sweater).
The automatic grant for each category will be implemented until the volume of the allocated quota of each category reaches 80 per cent of its total yearly quota. At this point, the ministries will halt the automatic granting process and the remaining quotas will be put in reserve or emergency cases.
Meanwhile, the Viet Nam Textile and Apparel Association has urged enterprises to seek non-quota garment export contracts as an alternate way to boost export revenue.
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
