The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade has emphasized the significance of implementing a measure on the third-party inspection of various textile products for exports to China. Earlier this year, the Chinese government issued a regulation specifying procedures for exporting textiles and apparel to China.
Regulation numbered 259 insisted on a third-party inspection of textiles and garments to check if they meet the requirements of the regulation, before exporting them to China by securing a certificate. According to experts, the new regulation was comparable to the EU’s Extended Producer Responsibility regulations and the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
“The third-party examination required for the textile and garment sector under the new regulation is a technical and quality challenge,” the experts said. Vietnamese garment exporters have already been grappling with a decline in export orders and this new regulation is seen as a major hurdle in textile and apparel exports to its second-biggest market.
In order to comply with the new Chinese regulation, the textile products will need to be inspected by third party agencies and can be exported to China only after securing a quality certificate. “Experts see this new regulation by China to safeguard its own domestic textile and clothing sector,” media reports stated.
Textile and garment exports to China declined 11.6 percent year on year in the period between January and August 2023 and touched US $7.5 billion. Incidentally, China is the biggest export market for Vietnamese-produced fibres and accounts for 50 percent of overall Vietnamese fiber exports.
