Editorial: Vietnam's Textile and Apparel Exports Soar. But Will US Quotas Clip the Industry's Wings?

Exports of Vietnamese textiles and clothing in the US market are booming. Vietnam sold US$952 mn worth of textiles and clothing in the USA in 2002?almost 20 times the US$49 mn worth of sales achieved in 2001.

In percentage terms, growth was a staggering 1,829%. Furthermore, value growth was almost double that of volume. This shows that Vietnamese exporters were able to extract much higher prices in 2002, no doubt taking advantage of the boom in demand for its products by US buyers.

As a result of this change of fortunes, Vietnamese textile and clothing exports rose by almost 40% in 2002, from US$1.96 bn to around US$2.7 bn. Back in 1989 they were worth less than US$100 mn.

Driving Vietnamese exports to the US market is a bilateral trade agreement between the two countries which was implemented in December 2001. Prior to the agreement, Vietnamese exporters had been highly reliant on the EU and Japanese markets. Together the EU and Japan took over 60% of Vietnamese textile and clothing exports whereas the USA took a mere 2%.

But the Japanese market has been in recession in recent years. Nor has the EU market been especially dynamic. Also, Vietnamese exports to the EU have been constrained by quotas.

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