Hung is one petty trader, who specialises in importing cheap China-made apparel products to sell to domestic wholesalers. From Hung and other merchants, China-made products go to 64 provinces and cities nationwide.
As the US and EU limit apparel imports from China, 69% of China’s apparel output are seeking ways to go ASEAN and African countries.
According to Diep Thanh Kiet, General Director of WEC Saigon Company, Secretary General of the HCM City Knitting, Embroidery and Textile Association (Agtex), China’s low-cost products are penetrating into Vietnam through the official import channel, and the products are made of redundant materials left in the process of making products for exporting to other markets. These products have very low prices because they do not cover the production cost (the production cost is counted for the products exported to other markets).
With the sale of such products, Chinese enterprises have violated WTO’s anti-dumping rules. Kiet believes that Vietnam can sue China for dumping their products on Vietnam’s market. However, Kiet said that Vietnamese enterprises, regrettably, do not have accurate figures to measure the bad impacts of the China-made products on the domestic market.
Kiet also said that the Government needs to set concrete regulations about the small-scale across-border trade between the two countries. It is within the Government’s reach to limit the imports of some categories of products which have been imported to Vietnam in large quantities. Besides, it is necessary for state management agencies to fight against the across-border smuggling.
Meanwhile, Hung and other petty traders said that they would still trade China’s low-cost products. “I have been trading China-made apparel products for 10 years, and I will continue my business as long as Vietnamese people need the products,” he said.
