Analysis of the effect of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement on Vietnam apparel industry

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) was signed by twelve countries, namely Chile, New Zealand, Brunei, Singapore, the United States, Peru, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico and Vietnam. It is the first comprehensive “new generation” free trade agreement of the 21st century, covering various fields such as trade in goods and services, intellectual property rights, technical barriers, government procurement, rules of origin, standards on environment labor and state owned enterprises, etc. Rules of origin is a very complicated issue under the framework of TPP agreement, but one that is integral to the textile and apparel industry. Therefore, this study aims to analyze if the Vietnamese apparel industry can capitalize under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. In this study, findings were based on published information as well as qualitative interviews with apparel firms in Vietnam. The Vietnamese apparel industry, with great dependence of imported materials (yarns and fabrics) from Republic of Korea and China, faces many potential challenges in complying with the rules of origin in the TPP agreement. Furthermore, if it is narrowed down to the level of firms, state-owned enterprises and foreign-owned companies would be the main beneficiaries from the agreements, whereas small and medium locally owned companies would be unlikely to capitalize on the export opportunities offered. Additionally, most of the products that are in major export categories would not be under free trade from year 10 on.跨太平洋伙伴关系协定（Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement，TPP）由12个国家签署，分别为智利、新西兰、文莱、新加坡、美国、秘鲁、马来西亚、加拿大、澳大利亚、日本、墨西哥及越南。它是21世纪首个综合性“新一代”自由贸易协定，涵盖货物贸易、服务贸易、知识产权、技术壁垒、政府采购、原产地规则、环境与劳工标准、国有企业规制等诸多领域。原产地规则是跨太平洋伙伴关系协定框架下极为复杂的议题之一，却对纺织服装产业至关重要。因此本研究旨在分析越南服装产业能否依托跨太平洋伙伴关系协定（TPP）获益。本研究的结论基于公开资料以及对越南服装企业的质性访谈。越南服装产业高度依赖从大韩民国（Republic of Korea）和中国进口的纱线与面料，在遵守TPP协定的原产地规则方面面临诸多潜在挑战。进一步细化至企业层面，国有企业与外资企业将成为该协定的主要受益方，而本土中小型企业则难以利用协定带来的出口机遇。此外，多数主要出口品类的产品自第10年起将不再享受自由贸易待遇。