Preventing many imported and exported goods that fail standards in the end of the year

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The smuggled supplement foods without origin was seized by Ho Chi Minh City Customs in November 2017. Photo: T.H

Force to re-export goods which fail the standards

According to Customs Branch of Sai Gon Port Zone I, in the middle of November 2017, C. foods Joint Stock Company (To Hien Thanh, District 10 Ho Chi Minh) imported 20,000 bottles of healthy foods. However, through the state quality inspection, the shipment fails the requirements on conditions and standards as prescribed. Thereby, Customs Branch of Sai Gon Port Zone 1 made a report and seized the shipment.

Due to the high value of the shipment (over VND 450 million), Customs Branch of Sai Gon Port Zone 1 transferred the dossier to People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City for handling this case.

At the same time, H.T import and export service and trading Co., Ltd (Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City) imported a container of consumer goods including toothbrushes and baby shampoo, but it did not declare them and its goods did not meet requirements on conditions and standards as per regulations. The value of the goods was over VND 190 million. Currently, the dossier of the case has been transferred to People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City for handling this case.

According to Customs Branch of Sai Gon Port Zone I, the cases of violation on importing goods that do not meet requirements on conditions and standards under regulations, will have administrative sanctions applied and forced to re-export the entire goods.

Recently, Customs Branch of Sai Gon Zone I, issued a decision to penalize M. Agricultural Development and Investment Co., Ltd (Hoang Mai District, Ha Noi) with the amount of VND 45 million, for the act of importing goods that did not meet requirements on conditions and standards in line with the law. In addition, the Branch forced the company to re-export the shipment of nearly 500 tons of maize flour worth over VND 2.6 billion.

Developing investigations for prevention

According to Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, at the end of the year, the quantity of imported goods will sharply increase. Therefore, besides the prevention of smuggling and trade fraud, Customs branches focus on quality inspection under State guidance for specialized management to prevent shipments that fail to meet standards.

Particularly at Cat Lai port border gate, nearly 60 of 630 cases of Customs law violations which were detected and made reported by the Customs Branch of Sai Gon Zone I since the beginning of 2017 to the end of November, failed the standards as per regulations. The items that failed the standards included; foods, drinks, machinery, supplemental foods, fertilizers, etc.

In the plan for anti-smuggling during and after Lunar New Year 2018, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department has developed some key tactics. In which, focusing on measures of prevention of smuggling consumer goods and general cargo with a trend for sharp increase at the end of the year.

According to Customs Enforcement Team, after implementing the investigation of prevention of smuggled Chinese general goods and seizing 2 containers of general goods and cosmetics that were declared as PVC plastic in the end of November, the Team has continuously implemented this investigation. Accordingly, the team has collaborated with other Customs Branches to closely verify and supervise a series of suspicious information of many imported goods declared as consumer goods, for the prevention of smuggling into the market.

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In addition, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department instructed Customs Branches to closely monitor and inspect import dossiers and supplement results of specialized inspections of businesses to check and prevent violations. This contributes to consumer protection by avoiding the situation of some unauthorized objects taking advantage of regulations to sell in markets without inspection results.