Prevent Chinese enterprises from cheating Vietnamese goods to export to the US

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The Director of the Department of Information Technology at the press conference. Photo: T. Binh.

Not to be taken advantage of Made in Vietnam

Speakingat the press conference, Director of the Post-Clearance Inspection Department Nguyen Tien Loc said: Recently, there has been an issue of abusing Vietnamese origin to enjoy preferential treatment for export goods of Vietnam to the countries that sign the agreement.

“In the past, Customs authorities mainly focused on checking and preventing fraud of origin for imported goods in customs clearance as well as after customs clearance. However, from mid-2018 until now, the trade war between the US and China occurred. In which, the US is imposing high taxes on many goods originating from China, so the Customs agency has focused on studying the methods of risk of origin fraud, taking Vietnam's origin for exporting goods into the US and EU market,” Director Nguyen Tien Loc said.

From October 8, 2019, the Department of Economic Affairs proactively researched and set up a special working group directly headed by the Director to focus on researching, checking and clarifying these doubts and frauds.

By studying the rules of origin and the conditions for determining goods originating in Vietnam, studying import and export activities of a number of enterprises, firstly, the Vietnam Customs Department will focus on Vietnamese goods for exporting to the US and predict risks in mid-2018 when the US-China trade war occurred, the US government imposed tariffs on goods originating from China.

Through the collection and analysis of information, the Customs authorities discovered a number of enterprises with a sharp increase in export turnover to the US market and preliminary statistics of 19 groups of products at risk of origin fraud. From there, make a list of businesses with risks of fraud and counterfeiting of goods nationwide to conduct inspections.

Fraudulent bicycles of Vietnamese origin were discovered and seized by the Customs. Photo: Thu Diu.

Importing 100% Chinese components but writing Vietnamese origin

Based on that, the Department of Customs inspected nine enterprises and directed nine local customs departments to check 24 enterprises.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Economic Affairs, Tran ManhCuong, representative of the Department of Economic Affairs, based on the synthesis of 19 groups of high-risk and sudden-rising commodities into the US and EU markets, the Department of Customs has conducted checks onnine businesses. Ofwhich they detected fraudulent acts to enjoy Vietnamese origin for goods exported to the US by four enterprises (three enterprises assembling bicycles and electric bicycles and one enterprise assembling wood products).

A typical case is Excel Bicycle Co., Ltd., based in Binh Duong.

This is a company with 100% investment from China, established in 2018, assembling bicycles and electric bicycles for export.

Notably, during the inspection process, the Customs authorities discovered that the company imported 100% bicycles, electric bicycles andcomponents from China to Vietnam for simple assembly at the final stage into bicycles, electric bicycles and electric scooters.

Meanwhile, components imported to Vietnam do not undergo any other manufacturing processes and export from Vietnam to the United States that originating from Vietnam to enjoy preferential import tax imposed by the US government.

Working with Customs, Excel Bicycle Co., Ltd. admitted the violations.

On that basis, the General Department of Customs has issued a decision to sanction administrative violations in the form of fines and additional penalties for confiscation of all material evidences being finished products, semi-finished products and spare parts stored atthe Company's warehouse.

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During the inspection process, Customs also discovered that the company had implemented fraudulent procedures to obtain the certificate of Vietnamese origin (C/O Form B) from the competent authority (VCCI Ho Chi Minh City Branch). On 11 November 2019, the General Department of Customs has sent a dispatch to VCCI Ho Chi Minh City requesting to revoke this certificate of origin and VCCI has withdrawn.