Garment import group condemns Vietnam “deal”
A trade association representing garment importers is condemning a deal worked out last week by the Bush administration and senators from textile-producing states over granting Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status to Vietnam.Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement that they had agreed to lift “holds” they had on granting PNTR status to Vietnam “upon receiving the Bush administration’s commitment that it will work to ensure that the U.S. textile industry is not harmed by Vietnam’s accession into the WTO.”
The two said they had “expressed serious concerns about the potential negative impact that this agreement could have on Carolina textile jobs,” but that the National Council of Textile Organizations had indicated to them that the administration’s commitment is “acceptable.”
The U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, however, called the agreement a “secret deal” which “creates a threat of antidumping duties on apparel imports from Vietnam.”
“The administration has pulled the rug out from under Vietnam,” said Laura E. Jones, executive director of USA-ITA. “A terrible precedent has been set. This could now happen to any other country and any other industry.”
“If it could happen with permanent normal trade relations for Vietnam, a bill for which there was overwhelming support in both houses of Congress, anyone can be held hostage to some special interest,” she added.
“The U.S. textile industry, which produces yarns and fabrics, does not have the right to file a petition alleging that clothing is being dumped or otherwise unfairly traded,” the USA-ITA contended.
By agreeing to create a monitoring system and possibly self-initiate dumping cases, “the textile industry has been handed an end-run around the rules” by the Bush Administration, Jones said.
