Contribute to promoting international customs cooperation

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The 13th ASEM Customs Directors General/Commissioners’ meeting affirmed the active role and contribution of Vietnam Customs in international integration and cooperation. Photo: Hong Nu.

International customs cooperation is necessary because Customs plays a key role in international trade. From the perspective of State management, Customs authority is the law enforcement authority of the Government to ensure the provisions of the customs law are fully and properly implemented to protect national sovereignty and interests in foreign trade activities.

Therefore, international customs cooperation plays an important role in the exchange and sharing information and mutual administrative assistance among customs authorities to ensure the information received by Customs is accurate and sufficient, helping to quickly conduct customs clearance for goods and vehicles and comply with provisions of the law. Especially, in the current context, international cooperation plays an important role in trade facilitation and combatting smuggling, trade fraud and illegal transportation of drugs, weapons andexplosives as well as other customs offenses.

International customs cooperation is coordination among customs authorities to research and develop new operational techniques, exchange management experience, performance measures and development orientation. In addition, coordination among customs authorities issignificant in accelerating the process of customs reform, development and modernisation according to common and advanced international standards.

To implement international cooperation activities, there is a need fora necessary and complete legal basis in accordance with functions, duties and powers of the customs authority, provisions of law on international cooperation and integration and the Party and State's foreign policy.

Over the years, the International Cooperation Department has developed the appropriate legal basis for the implementation of international cooperation and integration activities. Many solutions have been deployed like regularly collecting the needs of content, measures, and methods of cooperation from specialized units. Parallel to research and evaluate trends in trade, investment and tourism relations between Vietnam and strategic partners andcooperation partners, determining the order of priority in cooperation.

Based onthe external orientation of the Party and State, facts, trends, information on the import and export development, investment and tourism, the International Cooperation Department has identified countries which Vietnam priorities in economic and trade relations. Accordingly, analysing, evaluating and making a list of the order of priority in customs cooperation, building a roadmap for the negotiation and implementation of cooperative activities.

The department conducts research the advantages of each customs authority it is expected to cooperate to identify the main cooperation areas for each partner; studythe recommendations of the World Customs Organization (WCO), cooperation mechanisms, and advanced practices to select appropriate standards for each cooperative partner, and collect international treaties applied in practice in some countries for reference. The department has built a model to develop specific plans for each partner. In addition, the database of international customs commitments and performance of Vietnam Customs is also updated, monitored, managed and evaluated.

Thank to suchsolutions, the department has established necessary legal foundations for bilateral customs cooperation as a premise for Vietnam Customs to advise the Ministry of Finance to sign many international agreements and treaties. Specifically, five international treaties on bilateral customs cooperation, including one treaty at the State level and four at the government level, have been negotiated and signed, while 11 international agreements have been signed. At the same time, many international treaties and agreements approved by competent authorities have been negotiated.

This is the period when Vietnam Customs advises the Ministry of Finance to sign the highest number of quality international agreements and treaties, with the contribution of the International Cooperation Department in proposing plan development, negotiating and implementing procedures as prescribed by law. As a result, international agreements and treaties create an important legal basis for cooperation and mutual assistance activities with keytrading partners of Vietnam, contributing to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the customs management .

Among those results, the highlight must be mentioned is the agreement on cooperation and mutual assistance in customs between Vietnam and the Netherlands. This is the first state-level international treaty in customs to be signed bilaterally between Vietnam and another country. Or the agreement on mutual assistance in the customs field between Vietnam and the US - is one of the first government-level agreements between Vietnam and the US to be signed, and is an important milestone of both sides to resolve economic and trade problems arising from the trade tension between the US and China.