Hai Phong Customs: Actively prevent goods infringing Vietnam origin

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Chinese mobile accessories are labelled with TITAN label of Vietnamese enterprises. Photo: Thai Binh

Talking to Customs News, Nguyen Kien Giang – Deputy Director of Hai Phong Customs Department said that the Department has focused on preventing and combating frauds of origin and labels of Vietnamese goods. Facing the risk of increasing foreign goods infringing origin and labels of Vietnamese goods and implementing direction of leaders of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Hai Phong Customs Department has taken measures to detect and prevent this situation.

“In the meeting with the leaders of units, the leaders of Hai Phong Customs Department has regularly requested customs units, especially border-gate customs branches and specialised units to intensify monitor and handle violations on origin,” Giang said.

Following the direction of the leaders of the General Department of Vietnam Customs and Hai Phong Customs Department, recently, border gate customs branches have detected and prevented some typical violations on origin and labels.

The latest siezure was conducted by Hai Phong Border Gate Customs Branch of Zone III at the end of July. The infringing shipment related to mobile phone accessories was transported to VIP GREEN port (in Hai Phong). Hoang Bao Phat IMEX Company Limited (located in Tam Thanh Ward, Lang Son City) entrusted to a company in Hanoi to import this shipment.

When carrying out import procedures, Hoang Bao Phat IMEX Co., Ltd submitted a Certificate of Origin (C/O) form E (made in China) to the Customs authority. Although the goods were imported from China and had Chinese C/O, through inspection the Customs force detected that thousands of mobile phone accessories were printed on the packaging, name products, addresses and warranty centre of “TITAN” Vietnam Joint Stock Company - a domestic enterprise. Notably, many products were labelled “Made in Vietnam” and Vietnamese barcode (bar code 893).

Deputy Manager of Hai Phong Seaport Customs Branch of Zone III, Tran Manh Hung said complying with plans and directions of the General Department of Vietnam Customs and Hai Phong Customs Department on strengthening to control foreign goods with forged Vietnamese origin, the Branch has taken specialised measures to collect and analyse information to promptly detect and prevent infringing shipments.

“For infringing shipments, through suspicious signs, the branch conducted physical inspections and detected a large volume of infringing goods. Specially, shipments originating from foreign countries and using foreign C/O to enjoy preferential treatment but in fact many products and packaging of goods are labeled by a domestic company, showing Vietnamese origin and all instruction in Vietnamese. This is a sign of cheating consumers,” Hung said.

According to Hung, to prevent acts of foreign goods with forged Vietnamese origin, in addition to the control at border gates, there is a need for synchronous coordination of competent forces, especially the circulation stage of goods in the domestic market.

In early July, Hai Phong Seaport Customs Branch of Zone I detected a shipment forging Vietnamese origin and labels. It was the case of a shoe container temporarily imported from China. Specially, this container was branded TOPPER, inside shoe pairs there was a white tag “Made in Vietnam” with information in Argentinean language.

The shipment was declared for temporary import for re-export as sport shoes, originating from Vietnam by Lac Lac Co., Ltd. (located in Hanoi). However, through checking Customs dossier of the shipment, the Customs authority saw the shipment had suspicious signs of the trademark or origin of goods. Specifically, the goods name and bill of lading showed the Vietnamese origin while the port of loading was Xiamen port (China); Bill of lading showed information "PO # CARTON NO. MPORTER: ALPARGATAS S.A.I.C MADE IN VIETNAM ”.

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Facing suspicious signs, the Customs authority conducted a physical inspection for the shipment. As a result, the quantity and types of goods were consistent with the declaration; all shoes were branded TOPPER, inside shoe pairs there was a white tag “Made in Vietnam” with information in Argentinean language.

According to the latest information, two cases have been transferred to the Customs Enforcement Team (under Hai Phong Customs Department) for further investigation and verification.

The Customs force is continuing to clarify the signs of violation of the origin and labels of Vietnam's goods for a number of foreign cargo containers imported to Hai Phong port.