Identifying smuggling in the South Central Region

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The Customs force inspects means transporting of smuggled wood

According to the Standing Office of the 389 National Steering Committee, although the smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods in 8 provinces in the South Central Region (including Quang Nam, Da Nang, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan) have decreased compared to the same period in 2017, these situations still have the potential of complicated factors.

The illegal smuggling, exploitation and transportation of forest products and minerals, and the smuggling and fraud in petroleum business have appeared. Currently, many cases of smuggling and transporting of banned goods including: Firecrackers, explosives, drugs, foreign cigarettes, and the smuggling of electric goods, refrigeration units, household goods, general cargo, the production and business of fertilizers, fake pesticides of low quality, and the transportation and business of goods without documents and with low quality (such as cosmetics, low quality food, supplemental food and etc) have increased. The violators are diversified in age and social class; Instigators residing in foreign countries and large urban centers participating in the management of smuggling rings. In some smuggling cases of petroleum products, minerals and rare wildlife, the competent forces only seized goods and faced difficulties in arresting the leading perpetrators.

According to preliminary statistics from the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee 389, in the first 6 months of 2018, the smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods in the South Central Region have mainly taken place in the large urban centers with busy import and export, such as Da Nang, Phu Yen and Quang Nam. The number of violations in these provinces is high and many violations are serious. For example, in the first six months in Da Nang, the competent forces detected and handled 3,490 violations.

At the meeting of Steering Committee 389 of provinces in the South Central Region (held on 8th June 2018 in Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa province), representatives of the Office of National Steering Committee 389 acknowledged that some localities did not regularly inspect and urge the implementation, especially the preliminary and summarizing activities to draw experiences and supplement solutions in the instruction of prevention of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit in the new situation. The competent forces did not promptly and consistently evaluate and forecast with the reality, so that they did not control all key routes and identify the instigators to fight effectively, especially key items such as petroleum products, forest products and minerals. Thereby, reducing the efficiency of consultancy, prevention and fighting against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods in the market.

Over 3 tons of illegally imported wood were detected by Quang Ninh Customs in April 2018.

The representatives also stated shortcomings in the handling for current violations, especially the difficulties in verification and testing for goods, particularly intellectual property goods and trademark goods. For example, the business and production of products from Gaharu wood had popularly taken place. Currently, handicrafts and furniture are produced and processed from wood that do not have technical standards and regulations on quality control, so that the quality control for these items is only implemented on the basis of quality standards announced by the producers. In addition, the fee for verification and testing is still high (for example, fee for verification of petroleum product is about VND 1.5 million/sample); the lack of laboratory testing precision, even 1 sample can have different test results. The identification of cross-border factors when handling cigarette smuggling with quantities from 500 to 1,500 cigarette packs (the law stipulates that the trading and transporting of cigarette from 500 to 1,500 cigarette packs or more will be subject to criminal prosecution); the regulations on the coordination, procedures for identification of specialized agencies in charge of evaluating the quality of seized smuggled cigarettes and competent agencies in charge of auction have not yet been issued.

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In order to effectively implement guidance documents of the Government, Prime Minister and the National Steering Committee on the prevention of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods, provinces in the South Central Region need to identify the responsibility of the heads, assign, decentralize and specify the agency in charge and coordination agency. At the same time, strengthening the internal inspection, examination and supervision; strictly implementing administrative regulations and disciplines; strictly handling indemnification and corruption in the prevention of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods. Moreover, these provinces need to renovate the law dissemination and education of the law on anti-smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods associated with the national security protection movement.