Garment exports to US surge in first quarter of 2018
Vietnam’s textile and garment exports to the US reached approximately 3.14 billion USD in the first quarter of this year, marking a year on year increase of 13.2 percent.
Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s textileand garment exports to the US reached approximately 3.14 billion USD in thefirst quarter of this year, marking a year on year increase of 13.2 percent –the highest pace in the last three years, according to statistics from the GeneralDepartment of Customs.
The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association(VITAS) attributed this positive export growth to the rebound of the USeconomy, which has fuelled its textile and garment imports. During the period,the US imported an estimated 25.29 billion USD worth of textile and garmentproducts from foreign markets, up 4.2 percent year-on-year.
According to Vitas, the US trade tensionwith China beginning in March was one of the main factors affecting the global textilepicture in 2018. If the US extended curbs on Chinese garments and textiles, Vietnamcould export more to the world’s largest economy, the association said.
Vitas forecast that Vietnamese apparelexports to the US would likely hit nearly 13.84 billion USD in 2018, 11 percenthigher than 2017.
Vietnam earned a total turnover of 7.83billion USD from textile and garment exports from January to March, surging15.4 percent over the same period last year, mainly thanks to the country’sparticipation in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP) and its efforts to speed up exports to China.
Besides the US, Vietnamese shipments oftextile and garment products to the three major markets of Japan, the Republicof Korea and China also experienced encouraging respective growths of over 27 percent,22.3 percent and 26 percent, reaching 958 million USD, 896 million USD and 832million USD.
Meanwhile, exports of these items to the EU – another important outlet – saw amodest yearly rise of 1 percent to 1.13 billion USD, according to the department’sstatistics.
With a positive performance in the firstquarter, Vietnam’s textile and garment industry is striving for a year-on-yearincrease of 10 percent in export value, to 34.3 billion USD for the whole of2018, Vitas said.-VNA
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Illustrative image (Source: internet) 
