When are border management obstacles going to be removed?

Exports through Coc Nam border gate are mainly agricultural products. (Photo: H.Nụ)

However, obstacles related to the limitation of imports across the subordinate border gates and border entrances have not been removed. This is having a negative affect on commercial activities by companies and traders at subordinate border gates and entrances in Lang Son.

Prolonged difficulties

In order to efficiently put border management policies into reality, Lang Son Province Customs Department has been proactive to distribute propoganda and to inform and coordinate with the Provincial Department of Industry and Trade to guide the business community who takes part in regular import and export activities across borders. Traders have registered their import and export items at the Provincial Department of Industry and Trade as guided. They have been incorporated into the list of traders who have the right to conduct trading activities through the subordinate border gates and border entrances. Till now, Lang Son Province People’s Committee have issued three decisions permitting 487 traders living inside and outside the province to do sale transactions via the subordinate border gates and entrances.

Lang Son Province Customs Department has been in coordination with the Provincial Department of Industry and Trade to produce a list of imported goods in addition to the List regulated in Annex II of Circular No. 52. The supplemented list was submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for timely approval and publication in the List of imports and exports across the subordinate border gates and entrances.

Customs modernization to enhance the effectiveness of anti-smuggling VCN- Tien Giang voters proposed enhancing close inspections at the border gates and border routes from Vietnam-China ...

evertheless, a representative from Lang Son Province Customs Department has informed that Lang Son Province People’s Committee had not released any list of import and export goods through the subordinate border gates and entrances beside the List stipulated in the Annex II of the Circular No. 52. Thus, while waiting for Lang Son Province People’s Committee to publish the List of import and export goods beside the List of Annex II and time for importation, Lang Son Province Customs Department proposed Lang Son Province People’s Committee to allow Customs to do Customs procedures for imported goods on the basis of traders’ registered items. This may help to reduce goods stuck at border gates.

The real situation in Lang Son Province Customs Department shows that Tan Thanh and Coc Nam subordinate border gates belonging to the Border gate Economic Zone are where there are problems. At the border gates, functional authorities are assigned sufficiently. Lang Son Province People’s Committee, Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Customs have invested the infrastructure for meeting international economic integration demands, ensuring State management in Customs. Therefore, since the Border gate Economic Zone was established, traders import and export all kinds of goods (except for prohibited goods and goods of quota). So, the prevailing regulations on several groups of goods trading through Tan Thanh and Coc Nam border gates are not suitable.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Tran Van Nghia, Deputy Head of Coc Nam Customs Branch said that imports going through the gates are various such as consumable items, textiles, machinery, equipment, chemical, food additive… Although the List of imported and exported goods under Annex II of Circular No. 52 stipulates 04 groups of goods that not allowed from Lang Son Province People’s Committee but in fact 04 groups of items are rarely imported via the Customs branch. Mr. Tran Van Nghia was of the view that such regulations may make imported goods get stuck at border gates, affecting importation and exportation from regularly taking place. In addition, the Customs Branch would face many difficulties in accomplishing duty collection targets as well as performing daily operations.

With the same opinion, Mr. Doan Tuan Anh, Deputy Head of Tan Thanh Customs Branch supposed that importation and exportation via Tan Thanh border gate has been carried out smoothly since Decision No. 52/2015/QĐ-TTg and Circular No. 52 were issued. Nonetheless, the fact is that Annex II of Circular No. 52 provided 04 groups of items not suitable with the traders’ import and export activities via Tan Thanh border gate. The main kinds goods crossing Tan Thanh Border gate are fruits, consumable items, production material… Limitation of items would have a big impact on trading activities at the border areas.

Mr. Doan Tuan Anh stressed that agricultural products crossing Tan Thanh border gate make up a huge amount of import and export volumes. The changes in legal regulations and policies on importing agricultural products from China would affect the export of agricultural products from Vietnam to China. China would have countervailing policies imposed on agricultural products from Vietnam. This would lead to impacts on domestic production because exports such as watermelon, dragon fruit, longan, lychee and others mainly go through Tan Thanh subordinate border gate.

Obstacles should be removed

For efficient border management policies and trade facilitation, in an exchange with Customs News’ reporter, a representative from Lang Son Province Customs Department proposed that, except for natural resources and minerals and items with stabilized prices, it was necessary to produce regulations that enabled border provincial people’s committees to actively seek Ministry of Industry and Trade approval on goods such as goods with no certificate of Vietnam origin and goods outside the List of imports and exports stipulated in the Annex II and items 2 and 3b of Article 5 of Circular 52. The new regulations should be in the direction: “The Provincial People’s Committee shall forward 6-monthly and annual reports to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on importation and exportation of goods as provided in items 2 and 3b of Article 5 of Circular 52”.

At the same time, the representative from Lang Son Province Customs Department also suggested that we should not regulate in detail import and export groups going through Tan Thanh and Coc Nam border gates except for banned goods and ones with quotas so that we can enable and facilitate import and export through the subordinate border gates and entrances. Besides, the other subordinate border gates would limit the List of imported sea product groups and only allow the trading of items in accordance with the list announced by the Provincial People’s Committee.