Officials of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that after reviewing the third six-month data of the monitoring plan for clothing imports from Vietnam, there is insufficient evidence to support the United States launching an anti-dumping investigation into Vietnamese clothing imports. The United States’ monitoring plan for Vietnam’s clothing imports was implemented when Vietnam joined the WTO in January 2007.
David Spauer, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Imports of the U.S. Department of Commerce, said: “According to the agreement reached when Vietnam joined the WTO, the Department of Commerce conducted a monitoring plan for some textiles and clothing imported from Vietnam. The results of the third phase of monitoring showed that, Import prices from Vietnam are in line with requirements and in most cases exceed those from other suppliers, including Central America.
In the third six-month period (February-July 2008), the U.S. Department of Commerce inspected data on imports of five categories of clothing from Vietnam. These five categories are trousers, shirts, underwear, swimsuits, and sweaters. The inspection concluded that among 208 of the 500 items in the 10-digit coordinated tariff plan, the United States did not import these five categories from Vietnam. Most of the remaining 10-digit harmonized tariff plans have increased unit values, again indicating that no dumping is taking place.
The U.S. Department of Commerce compared unit values and import levels with other supplier countries in these five categories, including Bangladesh, Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand believes that there is no evidence to initiate an anti-dumping investigation.
This is under final review of the import surveillance program, which will cease at the end of the current U.S. administration’s term.
