In 2007, Vietnam ranked fourth as a supplier to the US apparel market, up from fifth position in 2006, behind China, Mexico, India. Apparel exports to US have showed a steady trend in the past few years. However, increased production and technological upgradation has enhanced the capacity of export.
The US Chamber of Commerce Vietnam forecasts that Vietnam will take Mexico and India to rank second, only after China, in terms of apparel exports to the US, with export turnover hitting US $6.1 billion, if the present trend continues Vietnam market share is predicted to growth rapidly from 3.2% (fifth place) in 2005 to about 6% and second place in 2008.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Vietnam exports of apparel products to the US reached US $4.5 billion last year, exceeding crude oil export turnover, despite US application of a program to monitor imports of apparel from Vietnam, thus, Vietnam has had to work out an export monitoring programme to cope with this.
This year, Vietnam targets to earn US $9.5 billion from exports of apparel products, up 21.8% against 2007.
