As per data released by the US Department of Commerce's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA), apparel imports from Vietnam witnessed the most rapid growth to the US in November. Vietnam has gained the biggest share of US apparel imports so far this year. Apparel imports have not grown much this year. The value of total apparel imports for the first 11 months of 2014 increased by only 2.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2013, to just over $75.8 billion.

Many US apparel brands spurred away due to rapidly rising wage rates in China which had led to a shift away from that country. As Vietnam has aggressively expanded its apparel and textile capabilities to attract more customers in the US and Europe, US apparel imports from Vietnam totaled a record $8.5 billion, up 14.6 per cent over the first 11 months of 2013.

Vietnam is exporting more expensive garments to the US than in the past. Key categories for Vietnam are women's cotton knit tops, women's and men's cotton pants, women's manmade fiber knit tops and dresses, and cotton underwear.

China has suffered the biggest share loss so far in 2014, dropping from 37.4 to 36.6 per cent of total US apparel imports. Imports from China fell 4.5 per cent in November to $2.1 billion. Indonesia edged ahead of Bangladesh as the third largest source of apparel to the US. Both countries have lost share so far this year. India has gained a small amount of US apparel import share this year (4.2 per cent) of total US apparel imports. Mexico has declined to 4.5 per cent of total dollar imports of apparel. A decade ago ,it was the second largest source, after China.