Official Dispatch No. 1820/HQHCM-GSQL dated June 19, 2012 of Ho Chi Minh Customs Department on reorganizing the inspection of origin of goods

During the process of professional inspection at the customs branches, the HCM City customs department finds that the contents of the inspection and determination of the goods origin for the batches that are applied the tax rate of the preferential import tax at the branches are not consistent. In order to avoid the loss of budget through the inspection of the goods origin and reorganize the inspection of the goods origin in a timely manner in accordance with the current regulations;

Based on the officer dispatch No. 1638/TCHQ-GSQL dated April 19, 2011 of the Customs General Department and the officer dispatch No. 1046/HQHCM-GSQL dated April 22, 2011 of the HCM City Customs Department concerning the enhancement of the inspection of the goods origin.

The HCM City Customs Department hereby requests the Heads of units to disseminate the following contents to each officer:

1. The Heads of units are liable to deploy and train their officers about the legal normative documents relating to the goods origin. Upon determination of the goods origin, the officers must rely on the legal documents promulgated by the Government on the goods origin and goods labels; promulgated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade regarding the principles of goods origin and promulgated by the Ministry of Finance on the special preferential tariff in order to apply to each batch of each F.T.A (Free Trade Agreement) in which Vietnam and Asean are members.

The Heads of units are liable to require the officers to regularly update the new documents relating to the goods origin and fully update the samples of seal and signature samples of the C/O issuing organization provide by the Customs General Department for the deployment of implementation and shall take responsibilities to keep under the “confidential” state upon comparison of the samples of seal and signature. It is prohibited that the seal and signature samples of the C/O issuing organization are not provided to the enterprises.

The HCM City Customs Department shall systematize the legal documents relating to the goods origin in order for the units to update and deploy the implementation (Annex 1 attached hereby)

2. A number of contents relating to the goods origin:

2.1. Bill of Lading:

a. For the goods with the origin, use C/O form D (Asean):

Besides considering the validity of the criteria on C/O (including 13 criteria) in accordance with the principles of goods origin, the officers must also inspect the Bill of Lading (B/L) with respect to the goods batches. The documents of the goods batches are only valid upon the issuance of the “Through B/L” in the member country of goods export (including the goods laid at the port of the export country but the B/L is issued by another country not from the export one, then these goods are not eligible to enjoy the preferential tax under the ATIGA agreement.

b. For the goods with the origin, use C/O form E (ACFTA):

The bill of lading is not required to be issued in China in case the goods are shipped directly from China to Vietnam (the Chinese port of loading and unloading port of Vietnam). The units shall consider the validity of the criteria on C / O (including 13 criteria) according to rules of origin in order to define the conditions for enjoying the preferential tax rate.

2. For the goods batches with a lot of items to be declared in the C/O annex:

In cases the goods batches with so many items that they cannot be declared in the C/O, the producer must declare them in the C/O annex. Other than the conditions for the inspection of criteria according to the principles of origin, only valid C/O when the annexes of the C/O are numbered , each C/O annex must indicate the reference number as well as the seal and signature of the C/O issuing organization on each C/O annex.

3. The goods from an export country are transited through a third country before imported into Vietnam:

Where the goods batches are in transit through another country before imported into Vietnam, in addition to the provisions of the through B/L, the customs officers must require the import enterprises to submit the certification of the customs authorities at the transit country freight or the goods carrier certifies that the transit is necessary and during the transit time, the goods are kept intact as upon exported from the goods exporting country.

4. Goods origin:

4.1. When checking goods related to the goods origin, the officer must comply with the Decision No. 1450/QD-TCHQ on July 24, 2009 of the Customs General Department. In particular:

The goods origin must be displayed on the products and specified the following contents:

- The goods name;

- The producer’s name and address;

- The goods origin;

The text “produced in” or “made in” or “origin” must be displayed on the product together with the name of the country or territory where such products are produced.

 The C/O eligible for preferential taxes shall not be accepted for goods with unknown origins or without the origin displayed on products as prescribed in the Decree No. 19/2006/ND-CP on February 20, 2006 on detailing the Commercial Law regarding goods origins, and the Government s Decree No. 89/2006/ND-CP on August 30, 2006 on goods labels. Apart from being ineligible for preferential tax rates, these goods shall also be liable to penalties from the Branches as prescribed.

4.2. Apart from the compulsory contents prescribed in the Point 4.1 above mentioned, depending on the properties, the Units must comply with the provisions in the Article 12 of the Government s Decree No. 89/2006/ND-CP dated August 30, 2006 for each kind of goods.

The Units must disseminate the above contents to the officers for performing their duties.

Every Quarter (from the 1st to 05th in the first month of the Quarter), the Units shall report the figures for the cases ineligible for preferential tax rates (under the form in the Annex 2) for the Management and Supervision Division to sum up and report at the direction of the Leaders of the HCM City Customs Departments.

During the course of implementation, any difficulty must be reported to the Leaders of the HCM City Customs Departments for consideration and timely settlement.