WASHINGTON — Vietnam, which is not yet a World Trade Organization member, will be left out in the cold when the group’s 148 nations drop quotas on textiles and apparel on Jan. 1.
Seeking to increase the Southeast Asian nation’s prospects, the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles & Apparel on Tuesday called on the U.S. government to consider lifting Vietnam’s quotas next year. The European Union and Canada have already decided to do so.
In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, the USA-ITA asserted that maintaining quotas on Vietnam when its largest competitors, such as China and India, face none, “undermines the ability of American firms to do business in Vietnam.”
Vietnam is the U.S.’s sixth-largest supplier of textiles and apparel, shipping $2.61 billion worth of those goods through the year ended Oct. 31. It is applying for WTO membership.
The only country that will be covered by U.S. quotas next year will be Belarus, which shipped $48.1 million in goods, for a ranking of 69.