The US and Vietnam signed an agreement capping the explosive growth in US-bound Vietnamese textile exports in response to domestic pressure from American manufacturers.
The deal was inked late Friday in Washington between officials from the US Trade Representative, an executive arm of the White House, and Vietnam's trade ministry following days of tough negotiations that began on April 9.
The opening round of talks was held in February in Hanoi and followed the implementation of their tariff-slashing bilateral trade agreement (BTA), which came into force in December 2001, triggering a boom in two-way trade.
"The agreement brings Vietnam into the global textile trading system, for as long at least as worldwide textile quotas are around," US trade official David Spooner told journalists in a telephone conference call on Saturday.
Under the deal, which takes effect on May 1, the total value of Vietnamese textile and clothing exports to the US will be capped at around US$1.65 billion to US$1.7 billion per year.
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