European Clothing Brand Retailers Call For The Abolition Of Import Duties

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, pportation 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 pitional 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."

Since Vietnam has limited supply to international brands, it will seriously limit our enjoyment of tax reduction if we maintain the existing standard of plateau origin.

"So, in order to take into account the world

In the light of the current situation of Vietnam's industry, we urge Euro Vietnam FTA to adopt the "single pformation" rule of origin, allowing the use of cloth purchased from any part of the world in Vietnam to make garments, that is, to enjoy zero tariff preferences in accordance with the regulations 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

For textiles,

And the footwear industry is very important, 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.

In 2013, Vietnam's clothing exports 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.