Prime Minister urged to reduce specialized inspections

	Specialized inspections are still great barriers
	Specialized inspections for imports and exports: What have the ministries and agencies been doing?
	No overlapping specialized inspections for the same commodity

Customs operations at the Customs Branch of Hanoi investment management and processing. Photo: N.Linh.

Currently, there are 5,719 procedures and permits of ministries, so enterprises still spend much time and Customs clearance costs at the border. There are also a very large number of specialized examination procedures at the border. In particular, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has up to 220 sets of licenses, and the Ministry of Construction has 106 sets of licenses.

Therefore, the Prime Minister assigned the ministries, sectors and localities to further accelerate the reform of administrative procedures to focus on removing difficulties and creating favourable conditions for the development of production and business, especially to accelerate the progress of implementing Resolution 19 / NQ-CP, Resolution 35 / NQ-CP and Prime Minister's directives, such as strengthening tax declaration and payment, step by step reducing the specialized inspection rate from 30-35% to 15%.

More inspections but fewer detections

The inadequacies in the management and specialized inspections for exported and imported goods were also problems that were addressed by the Director General of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can at the working session with the Politburo Member, Mr. Hoang Trung Hai at the headquarters of the Hanoi Customs Department last week. The Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can said that the inadequacies in the specialized inspections greatly affected the clearance of imported and exported goods. Actually, there have been many goods without HS code, leading to a large number of goods subject to specialized inspections. The Director General of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can said that there were more than 100,000 items subject to specialized inspections, but ministries and agencies only made up about 50% of standards and regulations.

In addition, the inadequacies in the specialized inspections are still at the sampling stage. Particularly at the HCM City Customs Department, each year, there were about 40,000 samples subject to food safety inspections, but the number of substandard samples was only 18 samples (reaching 0.04%). The Director General of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can said that these shortcomings were reported at the meeting of the National Steering Committee on the ASEAN Single Window, the National Single Window and Trade Facilitation. Also, the Customs office also recommended ministries and branches to promulgate a list of specialized inspections, which must be accompanied by HS codes and standards; and application of risk management in specialized inspections.

At the meeting, Mr. Hoang Trung Hai said that such solutions were appropriate. "If the list of goods has standards, they should include in the check list. But without standards, they should be eliminated to remove difficulty for businesses", Mr. Hoang Trung Hai emphasized.

Revising and removing unnecessary and overlapping rules

Recently, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue at the Second Meeting of the National Steering Committee on ASEAN Single Window, the National Single Window and Trade Facilitation (July 2017) has instructed the ministries, branches (especially the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Transport) to quickly review legal documents on specialized inspections according to schedule and deadline. Any documents which are not amended, supplemented or added in time must be reported to the Prime Minister, to clearly state the reasons.

In particular, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue requested specialized inspections for exported and imported goods at Customs clearance stage must be publicized on standards and methods of inspections. In the case where goods are on the specialized checklist but there are no standards, procedures, and methods of inspections, inspections may not be required at the Customs clearance stage.

In addition, the ministries and branches shall review and eliminate overlapping and unnecessary regulations in specialized inspections for exported and imported goods; promulgate the list of exported and imported goods subject to specialized inspections and inspections at the Customs clearance stage, clearly stating the HS code in conformity with Vietnam's list of exported and imported goods; informing standards and methods of inspections.

Improving the specialized inspections for exported and imported goods towards application of the risk management method, simplifying administrative procedures; strongly transferring to post-clearance audits, promoting mutual recognition of inspection results in accordance with international practice; electronic procedures (filing, returning of results ...) specialized inspections; sharing information and exchanging information among agencies, promoting management organizations and specialized inspections through the National Single Window.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade agreed to reduce the specialized inspections VCN- Many legal documents of the Ministry of Industry and Trade need to be amended and supplemented ...

Promoting investment in material foundations and resources in order to raise the efficiency and quality of specialized inspections activities for exported and imported goods towards stepping up the socialization (except for goods subject to compulsory inspections). The ministries and state agencies shall promulgate standards and methods of inspection for the establishments and post-clearance audits and concentrating resources on items with a high risk of disease, food safety, and the national security.