Vietnam Customs and USABC discuss cargo clearance during Covid-19 pandemic

Scene of the meeting

Participating in the dialogue, regarding USABC, Ambassador Michael W. Michalak – Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director, USABC members and representatives of Apples Corporation, FedEx, Intel and UPS

Michalak expressed his thanks to Vietnam Customs for organising the seminar, which concretises the contents of the recent ASEAN General Directorate of Customs.

Michalak looked forward to receiving initiatives and solutions from Vietnam Customs to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as sharing the expectations of Vietnam Customs for USABC so that the council could support Customs to ensure the supply system was sustainable, as well as highly adaptive.

According to Michalak, this seminar was also an opportunity for the council to share good recommendations and initiatives to the Customs authority, and discuss vaccine distribution issues; exchange of potential areas of cooperation between the two sides, especially sharing research related to low value goods; USABC's support in e-commerce, enhancing capacity in technological breakthrough.

At the seminar, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Mai Xuan Thanh thanked the US - ASEAN Business Council for supporting Vietnam Customs authorities in recent years and affirmed that Vietnam Customs is ready to work with the council and businesses about the initiatives and solutions to support the cargo clearance.

Sharing about the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh said that the pandemic has caused direct impacts on the operation of the enterprise, indirectly affecting the operation of Customs authority.

To overcome difficulties, besides directing to prevent the pandemic, the Government has offered solutions to support businesses.

Customs authorities have developed and issued an action plan to promote administrative reform and support enterprises in import and export activities during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. There were many solutions to simplify the submission of dossiers, the application of electronic documents and implement initiatives to coordinate with border agencies to remove difficulties in cargo clearance.

"Difficulties in exporting and importing medical supply and equipment have been quickly deployed by Vietnam Customs, promptly supporting businesses, including exporting and importing with the United States," the Deputy Director General informed.

Deputy Director General Thanh said that in the future, there will be a line of vaccine movement in the world. The Customs authority has developed a programme to work with the health agency to implement clearance procedure quickly for vaccine shipments at the airport, to meet the requirements of high preservation of the goods.

Besides that, according to Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh, the Covid-19 pandemic also created a large market for e-commerce activities and low-value shipments increased rapidly, posing a problem of how to clear cargo in the fastest way. While the current Vietnamese law for low-value consignments is not similar with other countries’ laws, with the problem of specialised inspection a major barrier.

The Deputy Director General said that Vietnam Customs has developed a scheme and reported to the Ministry of Finance to submit to the Government for promulgation a scheme on e-commerce management of exported and imported goods, and formulate a draft decree on customs management for exported and imported goods that are transacted via e-commerce.

Therefore, the Customs authority wants to receive experience from the US - ASEAN Business Council to implement procedures quickly and be cost saving for e-commerce, especially supporting the State in tax collection and creating equality among businesses in this type of trade.

Deputy Director General Thanh emphasised the spirit of the Customs authority that was open and willing to receive opinions as well as the support of the business community and organisations. At the same time, deploying consultation and support activities more frequently, going into solving issues specifically and planning for the future.