At the meeting, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Hoang Viet Cuong welcomed the delegation of leaders and experts of the EU-ASEAN Business Council and representatives of EuroCham in Vietnam to visit and discuss contents about Customs operations. It helped the Customs and European businesses understand, share and coordinate better, facilitate each other to operate more effectively.
Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Hoang Viet Cuong said that based on the proposal of the delegation, the General Department of Vietnam Customs expected to discuss with the delegation on EU-ABC and EuroCham’s recommendations to promote the cooperation between EU and ASEAN in general and the EU and Vietnam in particular.
Within the framework of the meeting, the EuroCham and EU-ABC representatives provided comments on issues related to the implementation of the National Single Window mechanism, ASEAN Single Window mechanism; Customs procedures for express cargo; Customs valuation; procedures for importing chemicals; analysis and classification for imported and exported goods; the contractor tax and the implementation of import procedures for medicines according to Decree 54/2017 / ND-CP instructing the Law on Pharmacy.
The EU-ASEAN representatives said that the National Single Window mechanism, the ASEAN Single Window mechanism were positively implemented by Viet Nam with much-encouraging progress compared to many other ASEAN countries. If they were successfully implemented, the export and import process would be promoted, contributing to enhance the economic development in Vietnam as well as supporting traders doing businesses in Vietnam. The EU-ASEAN representatives expected Vietnam to continue implementing many measures to promote the implementation of the ASEAN Single Window mechanism.
Further discussing on issues related to Customs operations, EuroCham representatives said that the Express Cargo Customs Branches were not recognized as the Border Gate Customs Branches, leading to difficulties in carrying out the Customs procedures for temporarily imported goods for re-export and goods listed in the Prime Minister’s Decision No.15/2017/ QD-TTg.
Representatives of the units from the General Department of Vietnam Customs provided specific answers to the questions given by EU-ABC, EuroCham. Accordingly, representatives of the Customs Information Technology and Statistics Department said that the implementation progress of National Single Window mechanism and ASEAN Single Window mechanism was being accelerated by the General Department of Vietnam Customs coordinating with other ministries and branches in accordance with the directive of the Government and the Prime Minister. The target was that by 2018, 80-90% of administrative procedures would directly impact on the import-export business in Vietnam and be implemented via the National Single Window system. In which, the Customs sector had implemented since 2014. At the present time, the Government was drafting a Decree instructing the implementation of the National Single Window mechanism, ASEAN Single Window and facilitating a trade to create a legal framework for implementation. In the deployment of the ASEAN Single Window mechanism, the General Department of Vietnam Customs had implemented in a timely fashion and had been ready for the official connection according to the plan.
Answering issues related to the procedures for express cargo, representatives of the Customs Control and Supervision Department said that in present time, because the Express Cargo Customs Branch was not the Border Gate Customs Branch, therefore, temporarily imported goods for re-export and other temporarily exported goods for re-import were not allowed to carry out Customs procedures at the Express Cargo Customs Branch. Regard to this problem, the General Department of Vietnam Customs had included this issue in the draft Decree amending and supplementing Decree 08/2015/ND-CP. At the same time, it proposed that the content on the scope of Customs operation areas at international civil airports need to be supplemented in the revised Decree No.01/2015/ND-CP.
In addition to the above contents, representatives of the departments from the General Department of Vietnam Customs specifically responded the issues raised by EU-ABC and EuroCham. In which, some issues related to the scope of management of other units such as chemicals import under the Ministry of Industry and Trade; drug import under the Ministry of Health would be noted by the General Department of Vietnam Customs to give recommendations to the competent authorities.
Based on the discussion and response by the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the EU-ABC, EuroCham representatives expressed their thanks to the General Department of Vietnam Customs for providing comprehensive information to the delegation. Two side’s dialogue and strengthening understanding were very important in the context of the implementation of trade facilitation agreements.
Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong welcomed the visit and work of EU-ABC, EuroCham delegation to promote cooperation between EU and ASEAN in general and EU and Vietnam in particular. In order to promote and enhance trade between EU-ASEAN, EU-Vietnam, Vietnam Customs expected EU-ABC, EuroCham to be the positive factor to closely co-operate between the parties. Vietnam Customs committed to accompany and co-operate with EU-ABC, EuroCham to promote the development of Vietnam-EU trade. In which, the dialogue between the two sides was very important for the management agencies to receive comments to amend legal documents.
Source: Customsnews
Key words: Vietnam, customs, EU-ASEAN, discussed, issues, promoting, cooperation
