Vietnam ’s apparel and textile industry has overtaken crude oil as this Southeast Asian country’s No. 1 export, said California-based Apparel News Group on its website.

During the first 10 months of this year, Vietnam shipped 7.5 billion USD in apparel and textiles to primarily the United States and Europe , the website said citing statistics from the Vietnamese General Statistics Office.

It added that the Vietnamese government predicted that the apparel export market would bring in 9.3 billion USD in revenues this year, up 3 percent over last year.

According to the news group, Vietnam 's apparel manufacturing sector has grown rapidly ever since the US government early this year stopped monitoring Vietnamese apparel coming into the United States .

Having feared that Vietnam would dump apparel goods on the US market, the George W. Bush administration started closely watching import prices in 2007 to determine whether anti-dumping duties should be imposed.

Accordingly, the US Department of Commerce held six-month reviews of five different apparel products—trousers, shirts, underwear, swimwear and sweaters—but found no signs of dumping.

The group said after the monitoring ended, more US apparel companies felt comfortable about sourcing in Vietnam , which is now the No. 2 supplier of apparel to the US , following China .

During the one-year period ending Aug. 31, the US imported 5.4 billion USD in apparel and textiles from Vietnam , up 3.7 percent over the same period last year./.