Vietnam's textile industry is facing great pressure.

At the conference chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the afternoon of April 7, Mr. Truong Van Cam - Vice President of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) - emphasized that this tax rate will cause Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises to lose their advantage compared to many other countries.

While Vietnam pays a tax of 46%, competitors like China only pay 34%, India 26%, Bangladesh 37%, Indonesia 32%, Mexico 25%, Pakistan 29%, Türkiye and Honduras only 10%.

In the difficult context, Mr. Cam said that businesses need to stay calm, proactively update information, cooperate with partners and buyers to share risks and seek solutions.

Besides, businesses should quickly expand export markets to potential regions such as Islamic countries (Halal), South America and countries that have signed FTAs ​​with Vietnam.

Digital transformation, innovation application and internal capacity enhancement are considered important strategies for businesses to respond to market fluctuations.

Mr. Cam also requested that Vietnamese representative agencies abroad actively support businesses in connecting trade, providing market information, needs and cooperation possibilities from host countries.

To support businesses to overcome the difficult period, Vitas representative recommended that the Government should quickly promote the FTA negotiations between ASEAN and Canada or open a bilateral direction with the Vietnam - Canada FTA.

The goal is to adjust the rules of origin to only two stages, more suitable to the cooperation capacity of the two sides instead of the three-stage regulation under CPTPP.

In addition, the Government is also recommended to consider issuing timely support policies such as reducing taxes, fees, loan interest rates, debt suspension, debt extension, maintaining debt groups and reducing mandatory contributions.

According to Vitas data, in 2024, Vietnam's textile and garment exports will reach 43.6 billion USD, of which the US market alone accounts for 16.6 billion USD - equivalent to 38% of the industry's total export turnover and 15% of the total US textile and garment imports.

In the same year, Vietnam imported textiles and garments from the US worth about 1.2 billion USD, accounting for 4.8% of the industry's total import turnover.