AEO scheme to be enhanced

	The General Director of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can is attending the 127th/128th session of WCO
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(Photo: The Deputy Director General of Customs, Mr. Vu Ngoc Anh directly met and listened to AEOs’ representatives)

Establishing an AEO management and settlement division

The Post Clearance Audit (PCA) Department (under the General Department of Vietnam Customs) was assigned to be the leading unit in implementing the AEO Scheme in 2011. Recently, Decision No. 1384/QD-BTC issued by the Ministry of Finance has stipulated more clearly the PCA department’s responsibilities in managing the AEO Scheme.

Commenting on this issue, Ms. Le Thu, Deputy Director of PCA department said it was a favorable condition to strengthen the quality of AEO. Especially, in the light of Decision No. 1384 by the Ministry of Finance, the PCA department is authorized to set up an AEO management and settlement division, which is a new regulation compared with previous documents. Nevertheless, it is necessary to have strong changes in terms of Business and Customs so that the division is able to bring into full play.

For the business community, Ms. Le Thu said that the important thing was to raise their capacity and compliance by consolidating the organization to manage their operation strictly and transparently in a processing cycle. A business that is not competent can not meet the criteria of AEO status. In contrast, if a business is competent but does not comply with customs legislation it will not be granted AEO status because compliance awareness is the vital criterion.

Customs should reinforce coordination, information exchange and consultation in new regulations and procedures with the business community. Customs should understand and help AEOs resolve their difficulties in customs procedures. This activity needs to be performed regularly via Customs’ and Business’ contact points.

Enhancement of the AEO Scheme would make this activity a model of the partnership between Customs and Business.

In addition to facilitating compliant traders, Customs should pay attention to assessment, ratification and selection of traders starting from the phase of AEO dossier review. According to Ms. Le Thu, the most important matter is to consider and assess AEOs’ transparency. In reality, some big traders sent their dossier to Customs for being granted AEO status but their dossiers contained some pieces of non-transparent information. Thus, Customs has not granted the traders AEO status.

Traders continue to highly appreciate the AEO Scheme

The benefits of the AEO Scheme are highly appreciated by the business community. AEOs pointed out clearly the benefits they gained from the Scheme.

The representative from VIETNAM HOYA GLASS DISK Limited Company (located in Thang Long Industrial Park, Ha Noi) informed that all their import and export declarations were classified into the Green lane (free of document examination and physical inspection) since they was recognized as an AEO in 2014. This helped the trader to save much time and cost. The biggest benefit is to support them in proactive planning of production, ensuring 100% of orders to be delivered in a timely way.

The leading seafood exporter and processor in the country, Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company (STAPIMEX) (recognized as an AEO in 2014) perceived their benefits in facilitated customs procedures and fast clearance.

According to Mr. Ta Van Vung, Deputy Director of STAPIMEX, both exports and imports of the company were classified into the Green lane and immediately cleared. Besides, the formalities of liquidity and duty drawback are now much more convenient.

Deputy Director of 2-9 Dak Lak Import and Export MTV Limited Company, Mr. Le Duc Huy shared that his company took about 5 hours to complete customs procedures and be given clearance in the past. Having applied AEO procedures since 2011, the company’s time of declaration completion reduced down to a few moments and 5 more minutes for completing customs clearance formalities. Exporting agricultural products (coffee and pepper), 2-9 Dak Lak Import and Export MTV Limited Company’s exports are classified into the Green lane (free of document examination and physical inspection). Facilitated declaration helps the trader minimize costs and human resources in undertaking customs procedures (currently only one staff does customs procedures instead of two in the past). Moreover, the trader can save paperwork, time…the total cost saved is equivalent to about 15 - 20 million dong each month.