From July 1, all 38 garment items will require to obtain a Visa before being exported to United States said Trade Ministry.

The requirement was included in a recent official dispatch, which was jointly prepared by the three ministries of Trade, Planning and Investment, and Industries.

The document made clear that the visa granting would be based on the Trade Ministry's announcement on its allocation of quotas to eligible businesses from May 1 to December 31.

The move is part of the Government's efforts to ensure the transparency of the quota-granting process and equal footing of all economic sectors in the process. The dispatch stressed that the quota-considering process is mostly based on businesses' U.S.-related export records in 2002 and the first three months of 2003.

It said between 60 and 70 per cent of the quotas would be granted to those businesses with good records on exportation to the U.S. in the above-mentioned period. To encourage new comers, the Trade Ministry decided to grant between 23 and 28 per cent to those businesses which have started export operations from late 2002 or just won export contracts in 2003.

The move has also encouraged businesses to sign direct contracts, use raw material available at home for export making and support businesses operating in difficult areas by offering them certain percentages of the quotas. The eligible businesses have, however, to prove their capacity in both exportation and hi-tech investment for export-oriented production, it said.

The first phase of the process, that will have lasted from late May to late June, will have 80 per cent of the quotas allocated, and the remaining 20 per cent will be based on the results of the responsible agencies' reviewing of the target businesses' operations.