The Customs cooperates with the Ministry of Health in reform of specialized inspections procedures

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The Deputy Minister of Health, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long and the Director General of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can had a working session on the implementation of administrative procedures. Photo: Ngoc Linh.

At the meeting, the leaders of the two ministries discussed many issues on the simplification of administrative procedures, facilitating businesses and citizens to meet the requirements of the Prime Minister’s Government Resolution 19/2016 / NQ CP and Decision 2026 / QD-TTg.

The Director General of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can said that in order to achieve the target of reducing administrative procedures and reducing the rate of specialized inspections in process of Customs clearance to only 15% under Government Resolution 19 / 2016 / NQ-CP, the ministries need to implement various solutions. Specifically, the ministries should speed up the implementation of administrative procedures of Customs clearance through the National Single Window; improve the system of legal documents on specialized inspections towards reducing the rate of inspections of goods before Customs clearance and effectively apply risk management strategies.

Regarding the issues of the management and specialized inspections relating to the Ministry of Health, the Director General, Mr. Nguyen Van Can proposed the Ministry of Health to urgently solve problems such as food safety inspections for donations and gifts; problems of goods for temporary import for re-export due to the inadequacies of Government Decree 38/2012 / ND-CP regulating the implementation of some articles of the Law on Food Safety; especially when the Ministry of Health has not issued the list of goods for food safety inspections before Customs clearance. Moreover, the list of goods and goods for food safety inspections before Customs clearance are very large, which needs to be narrowed, especially the list of products of Group 2 (unsafe products and goods ) under the management of the Ministry of Health.

Also, in order to facilitate import-export activities, the Ministry of Health should review and minimize the list of goods for food safety inspections at the border gates before Customs clearance, which needs to transfer these kinds of goods for Customs post-clearance.

Besides, the Director General of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can proposed the Ministry of Health to speed up the implementation of administrative procedures relating to exported and imported goods through the National Single Window.

In response to the proposals of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the Deputy Minister of Health, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long said that the Ministry of Health extremely focused on the reform of administrative procedures and the licensing of administrative procedures must ensure transparency, facilitating the business community. Currently, there are a great number of the administrative procedures of the Ministry of Health upgraded to level 4. In addition, the Ministry of Health has applied risk management to reduce inspections of goods for food safety and certification of exported food. The number of records for stringent inspections is very few. For enterprises after three times of inspections to meet the quality, the Ministry of Health will apply risk management to reduce the number of actual inspections.

Besides, regarding the problems relating to food safety inspections of gifts, donations and goods temporary import for re-export, the Deputy Minister of Health, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long said the Ministry of Health would report to the Prime Minister to provide temporary measures before the official introduction of the new Law or Decree. The Ministry of Health stated that all goods in a form of gifts or donations; and goods temporary import for re-export were not subject to food safety inspections.

The Deputy Minister of Health, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long also agreed with the General Department of Vietnam Customs to arrange specialized staff coordinating with the Customs in checking HS in order to create favourable conditions for the Customs authorities and businesses to implement Customs declaration and Customs procedures.

The leaders of the Ministry of Health also confirmed that they would accelerate the implementation of administrative procedures through the National Single Window. On this basis, the Ministry of Health will soon transfer the list of administrative procedures implemented in the next period to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

With the administrative procedures at level 4, the Ministry of Health will apply risk management to reduce inspections of goods. Also, the Director General of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can said the Customs would update the above matters on the National portal for research and streamlined Customs management to reduce the rate of goods for actual inspections.

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The Ministry of Health has officially connected to the National Single Window since June, 2015. At present, there are 5 administrative procedures relating to exported and imported goods through the National Portal, including: certification of State inspection agencies for the quality of imported food; registration for quick food safety testing; the licensing of imported medical equipment; procedures for importing cosmetics into Vietnam; and procedures for imported drugs with registration numbers for circulation in Vietnam.