Many positive changes in specialized inspections in HCMC

	Dialogue to find solutions for problems at Cat Lai port
	Towards comprehensive reform of specialized inspection
	​Saving 2,500 billion VND by cutting down specialized inspections of food safety

Imported fabrics are no longer subject to formaldehyde inspection. Photo: T.H

Cutting 50% of the time

To implement the Scheme on "Solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of specialized inspections for import and export goods” HCMC Customs Department has taken the initiative in reviewing administrative procedures,simplifying procedures through the IT applications in the specialized inspection to reduce time, travel costs, shorten the clearance time on average of 50% and to improve the efficiency of the management of specialized inspections in the coordination among the state management agencies.

HCMC Customs Department has actively coordinated with the specialized agencies to set up two specialized inspection sites at Tan Son Nhat international airport and Cat Lai port. These two sites have a large number of daily declarations, in which the number of declarations subject to specialized inspections accounts for a big proportion. The establishment of the specialized inspection site there has facilitated the import and export activities, reduced clearance time and travel costs among warehouses and storage places at import border gates.

Specifically, the registration, sampling, return of inspection results for a number of simple plant quarantine cases and food safety inspection of imported gifts are made right at the border gate; The rate of registration and return of results of the National Institute for Food Control at Cai Lai port is 100%, which has contributed to reducing customs clearance time and travel costs for Customs declarants.

The specialized inspection agency shall coordinate with the Customs agency to take sampling for shipments subject to specialized inspection and sampling at border gate on the principle of presenting the goods once in order to avoid unloading goods out of containers many times, increasing time and costs for container lifting, the loading and unloading of goods and goods submission.

HCMC Customs Department together with Sai Gon New Port Corporation and specialized inspection at agencies Cat Lai port signed the Coordination Regulation on sampling at ports to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the specialized inspection and make the clearance accurate through the sampling at ports.

Besides, HCMC Customs Department has taken the initiative in specialized inspection in the area to realize the difficulties of the business community and consider the inadequacies of the current documents to synthesize and report to the Central delegations.

Many recommendations on specialized inspections

So far, there have been many positive changes to some regulations on specialized inspections. Specifically, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science and Technology issued Circular No. 110/2016 / TTLT-BTC-BKHCN allowing the use of facsimile or image files to inform the specialized inspection results for Customs clearance; The Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Circular 23/2016 / TT-BCT on cancellation of inspection of formaldehyde and aromatic amines for textile products; exemption from food safety inspection for export processing and production (Resolution 103 / NQ-CP of the Government); energy labeling before taking goods into circulation on the market, which shall not apply to single imported unit, non-commercial imported goods and goods using unlimited time energy efficiency test results (Circular No. 36/2016 / TT-BCT of the Ministry of Industry and Trade).

Many ministries have promulgated the List of goods subject to specialized inspections under HS codes. The Ministry of Science and Technology issued Circular No. 02/2017 / TT-BKHCN dated 31st March 2017 and Circular No. 07/2017 / TT-BKHCN dated 16th June 2017 to change the specialized inspection method before Customs clearance for some items.

The Ministry of Construction promulgated Circular No.10 / 2017 / TT-BXD dated 29th September 2017 on national technical standards on construction materials and products and guidance on conformity certification and publication for construction materials and products.

Particularly, recently, the Government issued Decree No. 15/2018 / ND-CP detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety; Decree No. 74/2018 / ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Government's Decree No. 132/2008 / ND-CP dated 31st December 2008, detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Product and Goods Quality in Decree 132/2008 / ND-CP of the Government.

However, the specialized inspections have many inadequacies, in order to change the specialized inspection method for import and export goods, HCMC Customs Department proposed some contents:

The Government submits to the National Assembly to allow the development of a law to amend some laws relating to specialized inspection (revising clause 4 of Article 34, of Law on Product and Goods Quality, supplementing Clause 1 of Article 47 and Clause 1 of Article 48 of Law on standards and technical regulations) towards allowing the implementation of the principle of risk management, recognition of results of mutual verification, quality inspection for import and export goods.

The higher-level management agencies of specialized inspection allocate resources to the specialized inspection units at major border gates of the city. The specialized inspection agencies strengthen inspection, and guide their units and employees to improve the sense of responsibility and well perform assigned tasks to produce inspection results and update them to the Specialized Inspection Portal as soon as possible.

The Government directs the ministries and sectors to quickly complete information technology programs for specialized management, specialized inspection and connection to the national single window Portal; publicize and train widely for the business community to apply the IT.

The Customs continues to improve the legal system VCN - The mechanism to monitor the implementation of tasks and solutions to improve the business environment, ...

In addition, enterprises importing goods subject to specialized inspections need to actively learn information related to the regulations on specialized inspection for imports to prepare before bringing goods home, cooperate and strictly comply with Law on specialized inspections.