Thai textile and garment producers have shown interest in establishing production facilities in Vietnam to serve their exports to the United States, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Thursday.
Thailand has encountered difficulties in reaching a free trade agreement with the United States, so lower labor costs in Vietnam and the country's imminent entry into the World Trade Organization will help Thai-invested enterprises to boost their exports to the U.S. market, the newspaper quoted sources from the Vietnamese Trade Office in Thailand as saying.
The Thai Garment Group has already established facilities in Vietnam and some Thai clothing makers have planned to set up plants and shops in the country, because labor cost in Vietnam is 20-30 percent lower than that in Thailand, said Yotsuton Kijkusol, deputy chairman of the Thai Textile and Garment Producers Association.
The Thai garment and textile industry with 1.2 million employees annually generates export turnovers of more than 3.2 billion U.S. dollars. Tariffs on Thai garments exported to the United States will be reduced to zero percent from the current 27 percent if the two countries reach a free trade agreement.
Vietnam posted textile and garment turnovers of 2.7 billion dollars in the first six months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 32.6 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office. It is estimated to reap 5.5 billion dollars from exporting garments and textiles, mainly to the European Union and the United States in 2006, up 14.6 percent against 2005.
