European Clothing Brand Retailers Call For The Abolition Of Import Tariffs On Garments

European retail clothing brands call for the abolition of import tariffs on garments and adopt more flexible rules of origin as part of negotiations between the EU and Vietnam in the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA). Representing nearly 60 major brands, including Inditex, H&M, Levi Strauss, Gap Inc, Nike and VF, the European brand clothing alliance (European Branded Clothing Alliance), before the official visit to Vietnam by the chairman of the EU executive committee at the end of August (2014), submitted the request in August 13th to Chairman Mao.

Prior to this, Catherine Ashton, the high representative of the EU's foreign policy and security policy, said in a visit to Vietnam on a day long that the consultations between the EU and Vietnam FTA have made good progress and said that "to achieve the signing of FTA by the end of this year, we still need to accelerate the negotiation process".

The diplomatic official said that President Barroso visited Vietnam in August 26th and 27th, which will be an important opportunity to inject new impetus into the FTA negotiations.

EBCA president and Spanish retailer Cortefiel group executive director Ignacio Sierra Armas said Europe Vietnam FTA is a priority for our company.

"EBCA members come from different countries and have complex global value chains spanning many countries including Vietnam. Therefore, we support a global trading policy environment that simplifies the operation of our supply chain."

It involves operations in production, procurement, quality control, transportation and retailing. We warmly welcome the intention of the UEFA free trade agreement to cancel each other's import duties. The best case is that the euro FTA agreement will completely and immediately cancel the duty on imported garments, without a transitional period.

"At the same time, in order to benefit from the new preferential tariff, our member enterprises also require that the rules for the origin of EU garments be more flexible so as to reflect the value chain of our global operation."

Because Vietnam supplies to international brands. cloth Limited, if we maintain the existing standard of plateau area, this will seriously limit our enjoyment of tax reduction.

"Therefore, in order to take account of the current situation of the global supply chain and the Vietnamese industry, we urge EU Vietnam FTA to adopt the" single transformation "plateau production regulations - allowing the use of any fabric purchased in any part of the world to make garments for Vietnam, that is, to comply with the zero tariff preferences of the plateau area." finally, we believe that textiles and garments should no longer be classified as sensitive products by the European Union. "

EBCA also hopes that euro FTA can solve the complex and tedious testing items and quality testing of European retailers in Vietnam.

The letter also pointed out that Europe and Vietnam FTA It is important for the textile, clothing and footwear industries, because the implementation of the FTA will open up the European market with great potential for development. In addition, Vietnam's apparel exports to Europe account for 15-16% of Vietnam's total exports, which will provide significant potential benefits for Vietnam.

2013 Vietnam? The amount of garments exported to the EU increased by 7% compared with the previous year, reaching US $2 billion 400 million. In the first quarter of this year (2014), Vietnam's exports to the EU grew by 25%.

The two countries of Europe and Vietnam are looking forward to signing FTA before the end of this year. Once the signature is completed, they will be sent to the European Parliament for deliberation and vote to approve or reject the agreement, but the content of the agreement can not be changed.