Garment importers warn Vietnam textile imports threatened

Garment importers warn Vietnam textile imports threatened    A day after Congress failed to approve permanent normal trade relations with Vietnam, attendees at a conference of garment importers warned that future trade with that country was in jeopardy because of a decision by the federal government to potentially self-initiate antidumping cases against garment imports.
   Bob Zane, chairman of the United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, said the deal between the Bush administration and senators from textile producing states that, ironically, had been cut to try and win support for granting Vietnam PNTR status, had created uncertainty that could “virtually eliminate a $3 billion industry.”
   Garment imports in the first nine months of the year from Vietnam were already $2.5 billion and were expected to soar next year with Vietnam joining the World Trade Organization.
   Zane said importers will have to make up their minds about whether it will be safe to import goods from Vietnam in 2007.
   Brenda Jacobs, an attorney with Sidley Austin in Washington, explained that if an investigation of imports from Vietnam began next July, a preliminary antidumping decision might be made by November and be effective retroactively to September.
   With that kind of uncertainty, garment buyers might be reluctant to import from Vietnam.
   David Spooner, assistant secretary import administration in the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, offered some reassurance to attendees of the conference in New York City, saying that there has been no “backroom deal” with Sens. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., “that we will have dumping cases regardless of the facts.”
   The USA-ITA has also complained that it does not make sense to file dumping cases against garment imports to protect makers of fabric in the United States as they are different industries.
   Spooner agreed, saying Commerce would not initiate a case against garment imports “to protect a yarn spinner” in the United States.
   Meanwhile, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, in Hanoi in advance of President Bush’s trip this weekend to Vietnam, said normalizing trade relations with Vietnam is a top priority for the United States and that legislation approving PNTR status would likely be passed in December.