Modifying the list of Vietnam's import and export goods in 2022 to ensure compliance with international commitments

	Import and export turnover up 83 per cent during Tết
	Customs units across the country strive to complete the task in 2022
	The Customs sector clears goods valued at more than US$3 billion during Tet holiday

Import and export activities at Hoanh Mo border gate, Quang Ninh. Photo: T.Binh

The Ministry of Finance is collecting comments on the draft Circular promulgating the List of export and import goods of Vietnam to replace Circular 65/2017/TT-BTC and Circular 09/2019/TT-BTC.

The draft consists of 21 parts and 97 chapters, with a total of 16,726 rows, including 4-digit, 6-digit and 8-digit levels, of which 14,970 lines keep the English description compared to the 2017 version of AHTN and 1,756 lines of new item descriptions.It is expected that this list will synchronize annotations, codes and descriptions to promote free movement of goods and economic integration in the region.

On the basis of the approved List of AHTN 2022, the Ministry of Finance has compiled a draft circular promulgating the List of import and export goods of Vietnam to replace Circular 65/2017/TT-BTC dated June 27, 2017 and Circular 09/2019/TT-BTC dated February 15, 2019.

The promulgation of the List of Vietnam's exports and imports under AHTN 2022 aims to update changes in trade and classification of goods.

The Ministry of Finance said that the Customs Law No. 54/2014/QH13 dated June 23, 2014 stipulates: “The list of Vietnam's import and export goods includes codes, names, descriptions of goods, units of calculation and accompanying explanations. The list of Vietnam's import and export goods is built on the basis of fully applying the International Convention on Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System.”

Specifically, the HS list of WCO is amended and supplemented every 5 years in order to update products with technological, technical and commercial changes to suit the actual situation. Following the version HS 2017, the version HS 2022 was developed and approved by the WCO on June 28, 2019, effective from January 1, 2022.

AHTN is also periodically revised every 5 years on the basis of amendments to the HS list. On the basis of the WCO's version of the HS list 2022, the AHTN list 2022 has been reviewed and detailed by ASEAN countries at the 8-digit level to meet the goal of trade facilitation in the region.

Through 10 negotiation sessions among ASEAN countries, the AHTN list 2022 has been completed. According to the plan, the AHTN list 2022 should be internalized in the form of promulgating the list of Vietnam's import and export goods.

Accordingly, Article 26 of the Customs Law No. 54/2014/QH13 stipulates that the Minister of Finance has the authority to promulgate a list of Vietnamese imports and exports that are uniformly applied nationwide. This is the legal basis for the Minister of Finance to sign and promulgate the list in the form of a Circular of the Ministry of Finance.

According to the representative of the General Department of Customs, the authority drafting the Circular promulgating the List of Vietnam's import and export goods to replace Circular 65/2017/TT-BTC and Circular 09/2019/TT-BTC, the building of a Circular promulgating the List of Vietnam's export and import goods under AHTN 2022 was necessary to update changes in technology, trade and goods classification on the basis of amendments and supplements in the current AHTN list 2017 to match the actual situation and market demand; ensure harmonization with international product description, annotation and code system in the new period.

At the same time, the Circular promulgating the List of Vietnam's export and import goods under AHTN 2022 is also the legal basis for the Ministry of Finance to develop the Preferential Import and Export Tariff (MFN), and Vietnam's special preferential tariff rates (FTAs) for the 2022-2026 period, in line with international commitments, contributing to promoting economic integration and facilitating regional and international trade in goods.

According to a representative of the General Department of Customs, the draft list of Vietnam's import and export goods according to the AHTN version 2022 will have changes compared to the AHTN version 2017.

In which, the proposed product lines are re-translated. Vietnamese description (English description remains unchanged) to handle problems arising in the actual process of classifying goods; the remaining lines are proposed to correct spelling errors or re-translate for consistency in the entire list or to be close to the English description; product lines with new English descriptions (new lines) will be added in AHTN 2022 compared to AHTN 2017.

In addition, in the Legal Notes section in the list of import and export goods, Vietnam will comply with the AHTN version 2022 and the HS version, 2017, applying to all countries participating in the HS Convention.

Accordingly, the Legal Notes version 2022 has 172 new contents compared to the Legal Note version HS 2017 which has been converted to Vietnamese description; 50 contents of the Vietnamese translation have been modified compared to the List promulgated together with Circular 65/2017/TT-BTC, Circular 09/2019/TT-BTC to ensure translation accuracy.

In particular, in Appendix 2, there were six general rules on goods classification in compliance with the English part of the WCO. Basically, this draft inherited the content specified in Circular 65/2017/TT-BTC, Circular 09/2019/TT-BTC, unchanged in scope and basic content, it had some small adjustments to ensure consistency with the English language.

Many enterprises export millions of USD of seafood VCN - Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, many seafood exporters have gone the extra mile, boldly expanding markets ...

These proposed amendments were to ensure the English meaning, convenience, and not change the essence of the rules, the representative of the General Department of Customs added.