Barriers in specialized inspection remain huge

Vinacontrol staff inspects imported goods at Cat Lai Port. Picture: Thu Hoa.

Losing opportunities to do business

At the meeting, some enterprises have mentioned difficulties in implementing specialized inspection for export and import goods that made them not only waste money but also lost many opportunities for doing business.

Representatives of Dai Tan Viet Co. said that the company specializes in importing food related to human health, but it has encountered many difficulties in the implementation of specialized inspection because of overlapping among the authorities. For example, imported food must go through animal quarantine, food safety inspection. This not only takes too much time and money, but it also reduces the competitiveness of enterprises.

Also lost opportunities, representatives of Hennesy Liquor Company shared, in recent years, HCMC Customs has been closer to the company, however, the clearance time of goods imported for trade to consumers that not changes so much due to specialized inspection. Every month, it imports the same goods from the same country but every its export shipment must also do a specialized inspection, it wastes from 5-7 days waiting for inspection results for clearance, it not only wastes container storage, but it also made the company miss the opportunity on trading. The company wants to check for risk management.

Sharing about the difficulties that enterprises regularly encounter in the clearance of goods, representatives of the of Ho Chi Minh City enterprise association said that, although the Customs has improved many procedures, especially the application of information technology its professional skills, implementing e-customs clearance, paperwork reduction, but enterprises still have problems related to specialized management when carrying out procedures for importing goods. The representative said that it is necessary to improve the software in the reform of administrative procedures to reduce paperwork that the local level cannot do because it has been legalized; reducing the process, focusing on reviewing, eliminating redundant work.

Regarding the aggressive on the overlap in specialized inspection, Mr. Nguyen Le Minh Duc, Head of Import-Export Department of DKH Company, specializing in importing and trading pet food asked questions: For deep-processed food, why do enterprises have to check the quality, and also do quarantine animals. Meanwhile, quality control of imported feed for cats and dogs in the Department of Livestock takes a lot of time (about 14 days), cost of each test from 500,000 to 600,000 VND/product, wasting about 14 million VND for 20 products/container of the company; the cost of container storage at ports is about 700,000-900,000 VND/day, of which it is only free for container storage at port for 5 days. If the company transmits the declaration to the system previously, within 15 days without registration, the declaration will be canceled, so only having the registration of specialized inspection, enterprises open customs declaration, waiting for long-term test results.

Define responsibility clearly

Not only difficult for businesses, many regulations on specialized inspection also make it difficult for both the customs and the specialized inspection agencies. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly define responsibilities for each unit.

On the side of the Customs office - where the regulations for specialized inspection are implemented, representatives of customs departments under the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City said that, in fact, due to the documents of the regulations are overlapping, so the implementation is still very difficult. Recently, the Decree No. 113 guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Chemical Law has come into effect. There are also unreasonable problems affecting the process of goods clearance of enterprises. In particular, regulations for items containing precursors, such as ink, battery... Customs officials cannot be intuitively aware of whether the goods contain precursors or not, they must ask the enterprise supply dossier submission or inspection... so it will cause more difficulties in terms of time and cost of enterprises.

Mr. Huynh Son Tung, Deputy Director of Customs Department of Saigon Port, said that the coordination with the specialized management agencies at border gates in facilitating businesses is getting better. Regarding policy, apart from the overlapping, some software programs are not perfect. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly define the responsibilities of ministries, branches and customs agencies in the specialized inspection.

Because overtimes, many enterprises were carrying goods for preservation, waiting for the results of the specialized inspection, but they have deliberately consumed goods without customs clearance. Deputy Director of Customs Department of Tan Son Nhat International Airport Tran Ngoc Anh said that it is necessary to apply the principle of risk management in the specialized inspection of import and export goods. Accordingly, it is necessary to classify goods and enterprises to implement specialized inspection, like the application of risk management for the classification of customs declarations of Customs agency.

Representatives of a number of specialized inspection firms in Ho Chi Minh City also made many comments that the reduction or exemption of specialized inspection for import and export goods is not by the executing agency but by the management specialized agency. Mr. Mai Van Sung, Deputy Director of Center 3, said that the regulation on risk management (exemption and reduction) for import and export goods is regulated by the specialized ministries rather than the authority of the specialized inspection units. If the inspection of 2-3 consecutive shipment does not detect anything, and then ignores the third and fourth ones, the executor will be disciplined. A representative of Veterinary Quarantine Department Region VI - Thua Thien Hue said that it is desirable to apply the risk management in the specialized inspection, which will assign responsibilities of each enterprise and management agency in the specialized management.

Accordingly, nowadays, 80% of enterprises register for specialized inspection of export goods through customs single-window. For imported products applying to imported animal products, now it is also entangled with a digital signature when the enterprises carry out transactions in the domestic market. At present, if an item is made by two units of the same set, it shall be assigned to one unit, and if any item is inspected by 2 ministries, it will be assigned to one ministry. Similarly, representatives of Sub-Department of Plant Quarantine Region II said that they have implemented on the national single-window, now nearly 100% of enterprises participate, except for a few new enterprises do not know the single-window. Accordingly, within 4 hours for goods at the port and 10 hours for goods on board will issue plant quarantine certificates to enterprises, so the clearance is very fast.