Vietnam commits to drastically combat origin fraud

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The workshop.

Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai and Michael Greene, National Director of USAID in Vietnam, participated in the workshop. The workshop was attended by experts from the US, Japan, the EU, the ASEAN-US Business Council, the Alliance for Global Trade Facilitation, ministries and sectors of Vietnam related to the combat of origin fraud, illegal transshipment and the evasion of trade remedies, and more than 30 representatives of Vietnam Associations and Enterprises. This showed the interest of organisations and businesses for this "hot" issue.

Amid increasingly complicated world trade, especially rising trade protectionism, the use of trade remedies by major economies has had a significant impact on Vietnam. Facing the risk of using roads and foreign goods with forged Vietnamese origin to export to FTA partner countries, which Vietnam is a member to enjoy preferential tax rates, the Vietnamese Government has directed agencies and stakeholders on this issue.

Recognising the important role of the inspection and control of origin fraud at border gates as well as post clearance audits for consignments and enterprises that have suspicion of origin fraud, illegal transshipment and the evasion of trade remedies, the Ministry of Finance issued Action plan 1662/QD-BTC dated August 23, 2019 implementing the Prime Minister’s Decision 824/QD-TTg dated July 4, 2019 and directed the General Department of Vietnam Customs to provide solutions to fight origin fraud and illegal transshipment.

The Ministry of Finance- the General Department of Vietnam Customs has provided solutions by amending legal documents related to goods origin such as amending Circular 38/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20 of the Ministry of Finance on the inspection and determination of import and export goods, Circular 62/2019/TT-BTC dated September 5, 2019 amending and supplementing Circular 38/2018/TT-BTC, amending Decree 45/2016/ND-CP dated May 26, 2016 amending and supplementing Decree 127/2013/ND-CP on penalties for administrative violations and enforcement of decisions pertaining to customs controls towards raising sanctions against fraud and forgery of goods origin; issued guiding documents and directives to municipal and provincial customs departments to strengthen inspection and supervision of origin declaration in customs declarations and labelling of import and export goods.

Accordingly, specifying the responsibilities of units under the General Department level, customs department level, and customs branch level to identify a list of key goods with high risk of origin fraud to apply inspection and supervision methods through specialised management measures; issuing inspection plans; strengthening coordination with ministries, sectors and international cooperation with foreign customs authorities, promoting publicity via the media on trends, forms of fraud, solutions of the Customs and advising enterprises to raise awareness and not support origin fraud. Many violating enterprises have been handled.

This workshop aims to support, exchange and share experiences between Vietnamese authorities with origin and trade defense experts from international authorities, organisations and customs authorities on prevention of origin fraud, identification, and investigation of illegal transshipment and the evasion of trade remedies and show the strong commitment of Vietnam on prevention and efficiency to the business community and trading partners in combating origin fraud, illegal transshipment and the evasion of trade remedies.

Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai said in the context of increasingly complicated world trade, especially trade protectionism, the application of trade remedies of big economies has had a significant impact on Vietnam, which is an open economy with 12 in effect free trade agreements, one signed free trade agreement and three free trade agreements under negotiation.

Facing this issue, on July 4 the Prime Minister issued Decision 824/QD-TTg. approving the scheme on strengthening the State management on the avoidance of trade remedies and origin fraud, Mai said.

Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai hoped delegates at the workshop will understand the negative impact of origin fraud, illegal transshipment and the evasion of trade remedies for the Vietnamese economy to implement solutions of the Government, the Ministry of Finance and units to contribute to the fight against origin fraud and illegal transshipment.

During implementation, the Trade Facilitation Program will collaborate with GDVC, MOIT, VCCI and other parties to handle this issue.