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Vietnam Apparel: Update
May 8, 2008

The Commerce Department has announced its finding that, after reviewing the second six months of data from its antidumping monitoring program for certain apparel imports from Vietnam, there is insufficient evidence to warrant self-initiating an AD investigation.

Insufficient Evidence of Dumping in the Five Monitored Apparel Groups

Commerce examined import data for five different textile product groups – trousers, shirts, underwear, swimwear and sweaters – from Vietnam during the second six-month period, August 2007 through January 2008.

Its review determined that during this period, the U.S. did not import apparel in 208 of the 500 ten-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) lines within the five groups from Vietnam. Many of the remaining 10-digit HTS lines had rising unit values, further indicating that dumping is not taking place.

Commerce then compared trends in unit values and import levels to other suppliers of these products to the U.S., including Bangladesh, DR-CAFTA (Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua), India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Macau, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Based on this comparison of unit values and import levels, Commerce concluded that there was insufficient evidence of dumping to self-initiate an investigation, adding that the prices of Vietnamese apparel were in line with, and in most cases, even exceeded, other major suppliers, including Central America.

Import Monitoring Program to Conclude at End of Bush Administration

Commerce states it will continue to monitor trade in these categories during the next six months, and will review the resulting data beginning in September 2008. Import data will continue to be posted at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/download/vietnam-textile-monitoring/vtm-index.html.

Commerce adds that this import-monitoring program will conclude at the end of the Bush Administration.

ITA notice (dated 05/06/08) available at http://trade.gov/press/press_releases/2008/vietnam_050608.asp