Enterprises expect Customs will be a focal point of specialized inspection

HCM CIty Customs officers checked imported foods. Photo: T.H

"Overlapping" inspections

Regarding the quality inspection of imported food and pharmaceutical products, enterprises mentioned the difficulties in applying legal regulations on food safety to pharmaceutical products.

For example, monk fruit (Luo Han Guo) is subject to both plant quarantine and food inspection. When importing, it is managed by two specialized agencies, businesses had to run back and forth to apply for permits, resulting in higher warehousing costs and related costs.

Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department Nguyen Huu Nghiep said that regarding monk fruit, it was necessary to implement import policies for items of plant origin that were on the List of herbal ingredients promulgated together with Circular No. 48/2018/TT-BYT dated December 28, 2018 of the Ministry of Health and subject to the List of imported plant-based foods subject to food safety inspection issued together with Circular. No. 11/2021/TT-BNNPTNN dated September 20, 2021 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

To facilitate enterprises to import this item, the General Department of Vietnam Customs issued Official Letter No. 122/TCHQ-GSQL dated January 12, 2022 giving specific guidance on the implementation as follows. In case the enterprise declares the import of goods as herbal ingredients, they must comply with the provisions of the Law on Pharmacy and Decree No. 54/2017/ND-CP stipulating a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Pharmacy; in case the enterprise declares the import of goods as food and are on the List of herbal ingredients commonly used for food purposes promulgated by the Ministry of Health issuing together with Official Dispatch No. 7415/BYT-YDCT, enterprises must comply with the provisions of the Law on Food Safety, Decree 15/2018/ND-CP dated February 2, 2018 of the Government stipulating a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety; in case the enterprise declares the import of goods used in other fields, the enterprise may choose to apply the import policy according to point 1 or point 2 as mentioned above or according to the provisions of law related to the field of that product or goods.

For the above cases, the enterprise is responsible before the law for the authenticity of the declared content and presented documents; unify the content of information between the file stored at the enterprise and the file kept at the customs authority. In case the unit detects that the enterprise is using imported goods for improper purposes, the post-clearance audit shall be carried out in accordance with regulations.

Regarding problems of specialized inspection, enterprises proposed the Customs authority to be the focal point to conduct specialized inspection. The Government needed to issue a single decision stipulating the name of products and HS codes of items subject to specialized inspection so that businesses can easily look up product policies.

Agreeing with the recommendations, the leader of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said that the Prime Minister had issued Decision 38/2021/QD-TTg dated January 12, 2021 approving the project "Reform of quality inspection and food safety inspection model for imported goods” with seven reform contents to facilitate businesses.

Accordingly, the Customs authority is assigned to be the focal point in conducting quality inspection and food safety inspection for imported goods; synchronously apply three inspection methods to both quality control and food safety inspection in order to reduce the number of imported consignments subject to inspection; simplifying procedures for quality inspection and food safety inspection for imported goods.

At the same time, implementing item-by-item inspection to reduce the number of shipments subject to inspection; fully and substantively apply risk management principles in quality inspection and food safety inspection to imported goods to ensure the role of state management and improve the compliance of enterprises; supplementing the subjects exempt from quality inspection and food safety inspection; application of information technology systems to deploy new models.

Currently, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has submitted to the Ministry of Finance a draft Decree stipulating the management mechanism, methods, order and procedures for state inspection of quality and state inspection of food safety for import goods, which is consulting members of the Government to finalize the draft Decree. When the Decree is issued, it will be a breakthrough reform in specialized inspection, in order to reduce time and costs, facilitate businesses, and promote production and business.

Conducting physical inspection of goods showing signs of violation

As reflected by businesses, the Saigon Port Area 1 Customs Branch continuously strengthens the inspection of transit goods. Many declarations and containers are requested to conduct an inspection, but the cargo inspection usually lasts 1-2 months and incurs a lot of costs, greatly affecting the exploitation of goods and seriously disrupting the supply chain.

Responding to businesses' complaints, Deputy Director Nguyen Huu Nghiep said that not all transit goods were inspected by the Customs authority. Pursuant to the provisions in point g, clause 4, Article 43 of the amended Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP g in Decree No. 59/2018/ND-CP dated April 20, 2018 of the Government stipulates: "Conducting physical inspection for goods showing sign of violation", so only cases showing signs of violation will be subjected to a physical inspection by the Customs authority.

Regarding the rate of physical inspection of goods, businesses suggest that the Customs authority should reduce the rate because in fact, goods on the route Ho Chi Minh City - Cambodia are transit goods, not imported into Vietnam. If it is forced to carry out the inspection of goods, the unit should implement and resolve issues in the fastest time, ensuring human resources to continuously conduct this inspection of goods, and avoid delays.

Answering the above problems, Mr. Nghiep said that, regarding the physical inspection of goods, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department had noted the issue and would give the advice to direct the affiliated Customs branches to create the most favorable conditions for enterprises in the case of carrying out a physical inspection.

In addition, the enterprise proposed to consider reducing the inspection rate for some transshipped items, reducing the time for specialized inspection, and the Customs authority should have a specific timeframe for inspection. At the same time, creating a more open mechanism, for example, allowing transfers to the port twice for goods in transit, especially the channel of goods in transit through seaports in the southern region, forwarding to central ports and transporting goods in transit transporting to Laos and Thailand.

With the above recommendation, the leader of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department explained that for transshipped goods, specialized inspection is required, currently, it had been carried out by specialized agencies.

For the proposal on goods in transit and transferred to the port twice, according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 43 of Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP, which has been amended and supplemented in Decree No. 59/2018/ND-CP, there are regulations stipulating that procedures for goods in transit must be carried out at the customs office at the first import border gate and at the last export border gate.

In the process of transporting goods in transit, if the customs declarant performs the transshipment, storage, division of the shipment, changes in the mode of transport or other tasks, they should comply with the provisions of Clause 4, Article 64 of the Law on Customs; Article 43 of Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP is amended and supplemented in Decree No. 59/2018/ND-CP.

At the conference, leaders of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department also answered many questions related to cases of export goods deposited into bonded warehouses in the port but not exported.