Vietnamese Garment Enterprises After the Termination of the Multi-Fiber Agreement

This paper looks at the export developments of Vietnamese garment producers after the Multi-Fibre Arrangement was removed by the beginning of 2005. It uses a Global Value Chain approach and analyses what happens when there is a major change in the institutional context, in this case shift in the basic institutional international trade arrangements. The focus is on Vietnam and the Vietnamese garment suppliers looking at how they have performed after the removal of the quota systems and what kind of strategies they have pursued. The results show that Vietnamese suppliers have been able to compete internationally after the quota removals although many of them appear to be locked in the low value end of the chain. The data show, however, that they are not only able to compete and grow but also to change between buyers and markets, which provides them with the flexibility of shifting between chains.