Customs ready for coordination to shorten C/O issuance time

	Promulgating regulation on the rules of origin in EVFTA
	Instruction relating to certificate of origin in CPTPP Agreement
	Guidance for checking C/O information on the website of export countries

Guests attend the seminar

At the seminar under the framework of the conference “Take full advantage of EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA): Development opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises after the Covid-19 shock", which took place this morning, June 29, in Hanoi, the content of most concern from the business community is the C/O issuance.

Ms. Le Thi Nu, representative of Wood Alliance Investment Joint Stock Company (specialized in wood exports to the US, Middle East and Africa), said that the difficulty the company has to face upon exports to big markets is C/O.

While the application for C/O at the Ministry of Industry and Trade is quick, only taking from two to three days, the application for C/O at VCCI is quite difficult, sometimes it takes as much as two and a half months.

“Goods export from Vietnam to the US market takes from 40 to 48 days, there are shipments that the company has to suffer a full loss due to failure to get C/O on time,” said Nu.

For the EVFTA, the company has studied carefully but Ms. Nu said that the most difficult is still C/O. Currently, the company is promoting the export of plywood products and kitchen cabinets to the EU, Ms. Nu raised the question: "Regarding C/O, we do not know whether VCCI or the Ministry of Industry and Trade will support businesses?"

Assessing that when providing the service for import-export enterprises, one of the most difficult points is C/O, Mr. Nguyen Tuong, Deputy General Secretary of Vietnam Logistics Business Association said: "We often say in Vietnamese, C/O is a "sick child" because the sick child is afraid of our parents. We provide the service for import-export enterprises; the enterprises get C/O and we get money and vice versa.”

It is assumed that for both the CPTPP and EVFTA, one of the key points to make good use of the opportunity is to solve the C/O problem well, Mr. Tuong emphasized, the logistics business expects the launching of e-C/O issuance.

Responding to the opinions of the enterprises, Ms. Nguyen Cam Trang, Deputy Director of the Import and Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that origin is very important content.The word C/O means the Certificate of Origin, referring to the origin of goods, to make a difference between internal goods and external goods.

In order to enjoy tax incentives in free trade agreements (FTAs) in general and the EVFTA in particular, enterprises must prove origin of goods. The difficulty is not in C/O issuance but in proving the origin of raw materials.

From the perspective of the Customs, Mai Xuan Thanh affirmed that regarding application for C/O of enterprises, the Customs Department is ready to coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and VCCI to share data and experience, especially business evaluation and business ranking so that VCCI can rely on that to shorten the C/O issuance time.

Circular on C/O submission time amid Covid-19 pandemic VCN – On May 27, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 47/2020/TT-BTC stipulating C/O submission time ...

"The current customs procedures are up to 99.99% electronic. However, we have only applied e-C/O issuance for ASEAN C/O form D. The Ministry of Industry and Trade also wants to work with the General Department of Customs to discuss and consider e-C/O issuance with the EU,"said Deputy General Director Mai Xuan Thanh.