US apparel imports from Vietnam strongly rose in the first half this year, but were far from rocketing, although import quotas were removed on 1 January 2008. Shipments increased by 24% in volume terms, being up 21.80% in value terms, at US$1.88 billion.

US importers and retailers may have been deterred from ordering Vietnamese clothing after Washington accepted to monitor shipments and may possibly impose anti-dumping duties in the second part of the year.

The consecutive slowdown in the growth of Vietnam's apparel exports to the US market will probably result in the absence of anti-dumping investigation. The decision to launch (or not to launch) the investigation will be announced by the end of September 2008.

Although quota costs disappeared, US import prices did not heavily fall. Average price of Vietnamese shipments declined 1.46% in the first part of the year, finally unchanged from the same period two years ago.

Although Vietnam developed a speciality with man-made fibre -and mostly polyester articles, its share of the US import market did not improve in these categories in the first half.

Vietnamese exporters got stronger results with cotton trousers in categories 347 and 348, with US imports up 100% in only two years and market shares significantly rising in the meantime, although still far below 10%.