Customs authority can accept expired C/O on force majeure clause

Cargo supervision at Lao Cai international border gate. Photo: T.Bình

Previously, some import declarations of refined sugar were deposited in bonded warehouses. Besides the amount of goods have already withdrawn, a large amount of goods are still backlogged and will face an expired storage period. Therefore, enterprises proposed carrying out customs procedures for transfering to domestic consumption.

However, C/Os form D submitted to customs offices are more than one year since the date of issuance.

To facilitate enterprises to carry out customs procedures to transfer to domestic consumption for goods deposited in bonded warehouses, as well as reducing losses and removing difficulties for enterprises because China does not receive goods through the border gates and international border gate, resulting in a backlog of goods in bonded warehouse are going to expire their storage period in accordance with regulation of Customs Law. Therefore, Lao Cai Customs Department asked the General Department of Vietnam Customs to give instructions for the case that will that C/O be accepted for the company to enjoy the special preferential tax rate of the ATIGA when goods deposited in bonded warehouses are transferred to domestic consumption?

The General Department of Vietnam Customs said that according to the provisions of Article 14, Annex 8 (Certification of origin process) Chapter 3 (Rules of origin) of the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement and Article 14 Annex 7 of Circular 22/2016/TT-BCT dated October 3, 2016 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade implementing rules of origin in the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement, the Customs authority may accept C/O in case this C/O has expired because of force majeure or other legitimate reasons beyond the control of the exporter.

To handle specific cases at the unit, the General Department of Vietnam Customs assigned Lao Cai Customs Department to handle based on the actual dossiers and shipments.