Barriers on transshipment of goods removed for trade facilitation

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Imported and exported goods are transported into ships at Cai Mep - Thi Vai. Photo: Nguyen Hue.

Regulations are preventing trade

The barriers on transshipment of goods at HCM City seaport and Cai Mep -Thi Vai seaport have been mentioned in many forums from mid-2016. In May 2016, the Ministry of Transport sent an official Dispatch to the Ministry of Finance to reflect drawbacks in international transshipment at Cai Mep -Thi Vai seaport due to provisions of Article 44 of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP as follows: "Transshipped goods are goods from abroad transported into the transit area in Vietnam, then directly exported to other countries, not shipped in the territory of Vietnam to export except in the case where the goods comply with international treaties of which Vietnam is a member or under the Decision of the Prime Minister". Thus, the Ministry of Finance has advised the Prime Minister to transport “transshipped goods” among international ports.

At a meeting at TCIT port (Cai Mep) in July 2016, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Trinh Dinh Dung agreed with proposals of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance and decided to remove shortcomings and drawbacks in Article 44 of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP.

Meanwhile, in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, there were many recommendations to the Government at the online conference with local authorities (December 2016). Accordingly, Ba Ria-Vung Tau recommended that in accordance with the plan of the Government, Thi Vai-Cai Mep port was the national general port for international transshipment. Currently, in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, there were 28 port projects to be put into operation with a total capacity of 98 million tons per year, and 7 container terminals with a capacity of more than 6.8 million TEU per year. Although container volumes transported through the ports have increased year by year, the efficiency has been quite low. On average, there was about 1.35 million TEU per year, equivalent to only 20% of the actual capacity. This low efficiency derived from a poor transport infrastructure with high costs and charges and limitations in the provisions of Article 44 of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP.

According to Ba Ria-Vung Tau, the above Decree defines that transshipped goods at Cai Mep-Thi Vai port are not permitted to transport among ports even in the same system of seaports. Meanwhile, transport agencies want to tranship more goods among international ports, especially at Cai Mep-Thi Vai port to attract many big ships into Vietnam. In addition, the Decree has reduced the number of transshipped goods among ports in the territory of Vietnam and affected the demand for domestic transshipment and international transshipment of goods among ports in Vietnam; affected the development of seaports, and restricted the trade of goods in the territory of Vietnam.

Solutions to revise Decree 08/2015 / ND-CP

In order to remove the inadequacies and drawbacks on transshipments of goods, in mid-August 2016, the Ministry of Finance held a meeting with the Ministries, relevant State agencies, enterprises and representatives of transport agencies to discuss solutions to solve the above problems and recommend to the Prime Minister to remove obstacles on transshipment of goods.

Recently, on the basis of the proposals of the Ministries, relevant State agencies, enterprises and representatives of transport agencies will develop transshipment services at te international ports, the Ministry of Finance has continued to propose to the Prime Minister for pilot transshipment of goods among the international seaports such as HCM City seaport and Cai Mep -Thi Vai seaport to export.

Transshipped goods which are transported among the international seaports such as HCM City seaport and Cai Mep - Thi Vai seaport must undergo Customs procedures similar to goods in transit through the territory of Vietnam as stipulated in Article 40 of Decree 187/2013/ND-CP and Article 51 of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP. For goods on the list of import and export under license, enterprises can conduct transshipment of goods without waiting for the approval of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for guiding Customs procedures for the transshipment of goods among international seaports such as HCM City seaport and Cai Mep - Thi Vai seaport.

Transshipment cargos are not allowed to ship between ports in the territory of Vietnam VCN - Concerning problems related to transshipment activity of cargo as per regulationsin Article 44 of Decree ...

In the long term, the Finance Ministry has proposed to the Prime Minister to assign the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with the Ministry of Transport and relevant Ministries to revise Article 44 of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP as follows: Permitting transshipment of goods in the territory of Vietnam to international seaports to export abroad.