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Customs officers at Saigon port, Zone 1 check imported fabrics. Photo: T.H.

Enterprises do not respond positively

According to the HCM City Department of Customs, the clear effect after 9 months of deployment of specialized inspections is to check food safety for personal gifts and airport express delivery. Most cases are carried out through specialized inspections and test results are returned immediately, which reduces the time and removes the obstacles for personal imported gifts.

At the gate area of Tan Son Nhat international airport, the number of imported goods subject to animal quarantine, plant quarantine and specialized inspections is very high and Customs clearance is carried out quickly. Particularly, the Plant Quarantine Branch, Zone 2 has its own plant quarantine station at the airport, so it can return the test results at its office immediately.

The registration and receipt of results at these 2 stations for specialized inspections will save time for enterprises, speeding up the clearance of goods, and reducing inventory costs, etc.

According to data provided by specialized inspections agencies, apart from goods for quarantine, other goods are not really paid much attention to, with few goods registerd for specialized inspections.

Due to lack of staff, specifically: in stations for specialized inspections, there is only one professional interpreter in charge of English test, the majority of goods with other languages ​​(Chinese, Korean, Japanese, France .....) must be taken to the headquarters to carry out the specialized inspections, which takes more time.

The cost for organizing staff and maintaining activities at stations for specialized inspections will create difficulties for State agencies if enterprises do not respond positively, particularly for those agencies with offices at 2 stations for specialized inspections (Center 3, the Animal Health Agency Zone 6, the Department of Plant Quarantine Zone 2 and the HCM City Institute of Public Health). Besides, some agencies don’t organize more staff because they wait for the application of the National Single Window ( such as Animal Feed Testing and Inspection Center).

There is no synchronization in information technology, as well as specific instructions in the registration system, so enterprises can not declare on the national portal as the roadmap laid out.

Need for support from the relevant parties

According to Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, an expert of project GIG, through the survey for Hai Phong, Noi Bai, Tan Thanh, and Tan Son Nhat, if we target to implement the entire specialized inspections at these areas, it will be infeasible and unnecessary because there is such a variety of imported and exported goods which pass through these gates. Thus, there is need for a great deal of machinery and equipment for specialized inspections, which causes waste.

Based on survey and exchange of ideas with Customs, officers in the field of specialized inspections and enterprises proposed to implement procedures as follows: registration and sampling; test results; and especially records conclusion in the case where goods are applicable to exemption of records. The analysis of the structure and composition of goods in the laboratory requires standard machinery and equipment.

With the scope of work as above, stations for specialized inspections can maximize the effect and contribute significantly to simplifying procedures, reducing the time and costs for businesses associated with the following 3 solutions:

Changing the methods of specialized inspections from inspections for each shipment to the risk management method, on the basis of assessment of compliance with the law of enterprises. Accordingly, enterprises which are well law-abiding will be exempted from the application of specialized inspections or reduction for specialized inspections procedures (just records audit). According to surveys in recent years, most of the imported and exported shipments are passed with these regulations, fewer than 1% of consignments fail. In other words, the majority of enterprises comply with the Law on specialized inspections.

The State agencies organize enough competent staff to work at stations for specialized inspections and issue test results as soon as possible. In fact, quarantine stations at Tan Son Nhat and Cat Lai have a sufficient number of staff to operate, which shortens the time.

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While relevant parties are not able to participate in the national portal, they need to implement procedures for registration and return the results through the electronic system that the HCM City Department of Customs has established, which creates favourable conditions for enterprises, Customs and specialized inspection agencies.