The Import-export Department announced yesterday that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has asked the US Department of Commerce (DOC) to lift its monitoring mechanism on garment and textile imports from Vietnam.

The Ministry said the US monitoring program is unfair and violates rules of non-discriminatory treatment of the WTO and GATT 1997.

For the time being, the Ministry is asking the US to stop monitoring Vietnamese products which the US doesn’t make or does so in relatively small quantities.

After Vietnam was granted PNTR status last year, the US DOC announced it would apply the monitoring program to Viet-Nam-made clothing every six months.

Prior to that, the DOC planned to start the monitoring program after Vietnam joined the WTO on January 11. However, commentators said it was too early at that stage.

The DOC has launched a webpage about monitoring textile and garment imports from Vietnam at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/download/vietnam-textile-monitoring/vtm-index.html.
 
Data on the import of the five “sensitive” categories along with 26 kinds of clothes subject to the DOC’s import monitoring program is updated monthly on that webpage.

* Source: Sài Gòn Giải phóng - VNECONOMY updated: 08/11/2007