Thousands of scrap containers have been massively imported, causing backlogs at Vietnamese seaports and a high risk of environmental pollution. This fact requires the strong involvement of State management agencies. Around this issue, the reporter of Customs interviewed Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Mai Xuan Thanh on the solutions of the Customs.
So far, how has the Customs office handled the large quantity of waste containers left at ports, Sir?
Scrap products always have the potentiality to affect human health. When China prohibited the import of 24 types of scraps and scrap imports, Vietnam’s scrap imports tended to increase strongly. At the beginning of the year, the General Department of Vietnam Customs issued the plans for controlling the risk management, the strict control plan to detect enterprises which are deliberately wrong, bringing waste into Vietnam in many forms.
In particular, the General Department of Vietnam Customs instructed the units to review, evaluate and classify enterprises with signs of violation, signs of risk to take measures such as inspections, investigation and verification. At the same time, for discarded materials which are high-risk goods causing environmental pollution, 100% of the goods lots must be physically examined at the border gates and not allowed to be brought inland for inspections. If they fail to meet the conditions prescribed for environmental protection, they must be re-exported out of the Vietnamese territory. The Customs also requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to provide and submit to the National Information Portal the list of enterprises which have been granted the certificate of satisfaction of environmental protection conditions in the import of materials for production and notification of imported goods lots for inspection and Customs clearance. The customs authorities shall take the initiative in proposing preventive measures, preventing imported waste and scraps which do not meet the control conditions forenvironmental pollution.
For cases of signs of violation, the General Department of Customs has directed the investigation and verification of scrap import activities of some companies and detected methods and tricks of enterprises. The written notice on the shipment of import scraps shall be submitted to the Customs agency for inspection and clearance.
What are the difficulties that the Customs sector is facing in the prevention, detection and treatment of scrap imports, Sir?
At present, Customs officers carry out Customs procedures for general cargo and discarded materials on the basis of regulations on management policies of specialized management agencies, stipulated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Scrap imports are only permitted Customs clearance when fully meeting the provisions of Customs law and environmental protection law. Therefore, in order to ensure the management of scrap imports, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment should closely cooperate with the General Department of Vietnam Customs in providing and exchanging information on certificates of eligibility for scrap import. In particular, licensing should be made on the National Single Window.
Besides, the policies in dealing with scraps still have some shortcomings. At Point b, Clause 6, Article 58 of the Customs Law of 2014, "For goods that cause environmental pollution, the owners of means of transport, the operators of transport means or the people authorized by the transport means must transport such goods out of the Vietnamese territory".
At Point c, Clause 2, Article 14 of the Finance Ministry's Circular No. 203/2015 / TT-BTC, "For goods causing environmental pollution, goods owners, transport means owners and operators, the people authorized by the owner of the transport means shall be responsible for transporting such goods out of the Vietnamese territory".
Thus, the current law stipulates that the owners of means of transport, the operators of transport means or the people authorized by the owners of transport means must carry out the transportation of goods left in stock which cause environmental pollution out of the territory of Vietnam. However, there are no regulations on penalties for failure to fulfill the above responsibilities. Therefore, the General Department of Vietnam Customs will advise the Ministry of Finance to propose amendments and supplements to the provisions of the Law on sanctioning fines and in accordance with Article 58 of the Customs Law of 2014.
At the same time, the Customs shall request the Ministry of Communications and Transport to direct port authorities not to grant permits for vessels entering ports in cases where such means have been transported without recipients or goods causing environmental pollution without recipients. Accordingly, force them to be re-exported out of the Vietnamese territory according to the provisions of Article 58 of the Customs Law.
Besides proposing competent authorities to deal with scrap imports into Vietnam, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has recently issued Official Letter 4202 / TCHQ-PC dated 17 July 2018 on the management of scrap imports from abroad into Vietnam. Customs authorities will request the shipping company to transport the goods out of the Vietnamese territory and handle the violations according to regulations if the information declared on the manifest is not in accordance with the regulations. Customs authorities will also not register Customs declarations for scrap materials if importers do not have a certificate of environmental protection qualification for scrap metals as production materials. The Customs will take samples, analyze and inspect the shipments of waste materials to ensure that the consignment of goods has been licensed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and meets the technical standards on environment.
For goods not subject to technical standards on environment, the General Department of Vietnam Customs will put them into control of the key.
Thank you Deputy Director General!
Source: VCN
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