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The press conference. Photo: T. Binh.

Intensify coordination and inspections

On the afternoon of 26 July 2018, the General Department of Vietnam Customs held a press conference to introduce Circular 38/2018 / TT-BTC on determining the origin of goods.

At the press conference, some reporters asked whether the US-China trade war would make Chinese or US goods penetrate into Vietnam to take advantage of Vietnam's origin to export or not. Mr. Nguyen Nhat Kha, the Deputy Director of Customs Supervision and Management Department (under the General Department of Vietnam Customs) said that during the process of Customs clearance, enterprises must clearly declare the origin of goods. In addition, in the management process, the Customs authorities will coordinate with the ministries and relevant departments to implement inspection and supervision to prevent goods with fraudulent origin.

"We will coordinate to implement inspections at the agency responsible for issuing C / O to ensure the requirements of origin of goods as declared as well as ensure regulations of origin of goods," Mr. Nguyen Nhat Kha said.

Regarding the question whether the Customs office discovered many C / O frauds or not, the Deputy Director of Customs Supervision and Management said that not many cases of counterfeit C / O were detected. "Major errors related to the issue of C / O are not in accordance with the provisions of signed agreements due to different interpretations among the authorities," Mr. Nguyen Nhat Kha added.

C / O form EAV is submitted at the time of Customs clearance

Circular No. 38/2018 / TT-BTC is an important legal document specifying and unifying the determination of origin of exported and imported goods.

The issue of the Circular is to facilitate export and import activities of enterprises, to protect consumers' interests and apply preferential tariffs in accordance with international commitments which Vietnam is a contracting party.

"For the first time in the field of identification of import and export goods, there is a separate legal document to help Customs and enterprises in the implementation and lookup,"the representative of the Customs Supervision and Management Department said.

At the press conference, the Customs Supervision and Management Department informed new and important information related to Circular 38.

Notably, there are provisions on the time of C / O submission. Accordingly, in the case where customs declarants have vouchers of origin certifying the time of carrying out Customs procedures, they have to submit them at the time of Customs procedures.

In the case where Customs declarants do not have vouchers at the time of carrying out Customs procedures, they shall be delayed to pay within 30 days from the date of registration of Customs declarations. There are 2 exceptions for C / O form EAV (according to Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and Eurasia Economic Union) submitted at the time of Customs clearance, and for C / O form KV or VK (under the Vietnam - Korea Free Trade Agreement). If there is no certificate of origin at the time of Customs clearance, the submission will be implemented within one year.

Regarding the specific time of filing certificates of origin for goods of AEO enterprises, the representative of the Supervision and Management Department said that in the case where there is a voucher certifying the origin of goods, the Customs declarant shall make the declaration as prescribed and submit the voucher certifying the origin of goods within the time limit for tax payment according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 9 of the Law. Export tax and import tax shall be paid on the tenth day of the following month at the latest.

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In the case where there is no voucher certifying the origin of goods at the time of carrying out customs procedures, the Customs declarant shall make the declaration on the customs declaration forms according to regulations and be delayed to pay within 30 days after the date of registration of Customs declaration. Except C / O form EAV submitted at the time of carrying out customs procedures, and C / O form KV or VK where vouchers of origin have not been issued at the time of Customs clearance, the deadline is one year.