The situation of one commodity with "the tie" from two Ministries

	Enterprises evade price inspection at the border gate
	Tight controls over unknown fresh food
	Customs uses statistics of commodities under mode of transport

Officers of Bac Phong Sinh Customs Brach are inspecting import and export commodities. Picture: Q.Hung

A very popular commodity with people's daily life is imported drinking fermented yogurt. To reach consumers, this item must "bear" two kinds of papers. First is the quality control document, second is animal quarantine inspection document. In order to get these papers, a bottle of drinking fermented yogurt has to "knock" on the doors of two different State authorities.

Specifically, the case of Viet Nam Betagen Limited Company trading drinking fermented yogurt which is imported from Thailand at Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department. The company's shipments were certified by Viet Nam Food Assurance (VFA) - Ministry of Health that these shipments were appropriate with the food safety regulations for functional foods and also the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health of Ho Chi Minh City issued the notification document for qualified food importation. However, Customs authorities required the company to present two types of documents to complete clearance procedures: quality control documents from the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health of HCM City and animal quarantine inspection document from HCM City Animal Health Department.

In the view of Viet Nam Betagen Limited Company, the Company's products are processed milk and are considered as a functional food which was issued for appropriate certification by the VFA and the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health of HCM City. This was reasonable. Moreover, due to the particular characteristic of goods of this company being cryopreservation products with short shelf life (45 days from the date of manufacture), to complete procedures and supply two types of documents on which Customs agencies are required to complete clearance, the company has to spend lot of cost for container storage, and cold preserved cargo fees. Thus, the products of enterprises do not have enough time for sale into supermarkets and distributors. The Company is proposing the Ministry of Finance to direct Customs authorities for clearance approval of import consignments with one single quality inspection document only.

However, the above suggestion is not in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance. According to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Decision No 3648/2016/QD-BCT on announcement of the imported products list which has to inspect the quality assurance, technical regulations and food safety standards before clearance under the management responsibility of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. So, drinking fermented yogurt is a commodity which has to be inspected for food safety standards before clearance. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also issued the Decision No 4758/2015/QD-BNN-TY on the issuance of the HS codes list of land animals, and land animal products which are subject to quarantine. Thus, drinking fermented yogurt also required quarantine. Besides, the proposal that Customs authorities will accept for clearance of this commodity with just one document also is beyond the competence of the Ministry of Finance.

To solve this problem, the Ministry of Finance has written proposals to 3 Ministries including: Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Trade, Health, which noted the proposal of the enterprise in the process of amending and supplementing law, regulation documents on specialized inspection in order to facilitate enterprises for reducing the clearance time of goods as the spirit of Decision No. 2026 / QD-TTg of the Prime Minister and the Resolution 19/2016 / NQ-CP of the Government. The Finance Ministry also proposed, at the period of pending for amendments and supplements of relevant Decisions and Circulars, commodities with careful processing (such as yogurt, canned food)under quarantine, and also are subject to food safety inspections, enterprises only need to show one document for Customs clearance.

11 Ministries urged to amend documents on specialized inspections VCN- The Ministry of Finance has proposed to 11 Ministries to amend and supplement 76 groups of ...

The case of an item which is managed by two state authorities is just one of many problems related to specialized management activities for import and export goods. Recently, the Ministry of Finance has asked 11 other Ministries to review, amend and supplement 76 groups of legal documents which related to specialized management activities. The Ministry of Finance clearly stated the situation of the same product managed by many Ministries, causing time extension of specialized management inspection, obstructing Customs clearance procedures, breaking the flow of goods. For example, in the case of Circular No. 29/2014/TT-BCT of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on provisions of inorganic fertilizers quality management, this product is in 2^nd group, subject to inspection before clearance. However, the regulations which required two inspections (certificates of conformity, quality checks) before clearance is not appropriate and should be adjusted. The Ministry of Industry and Trade should consider the need for quality control of imported fertilizers before clearance (because this commodity was performed certification of conformity when importing).