This time is the lychee harvest in growing areas such as Bac Giang and Hai Duong, so every day, hundreds of trucks carrying fresh lychee carry out procedures for export through Tan Thanh border gate in Lang Son province.

The statistics show that there are about 1,400 trucks transporting goods waiting for export at border gate areas in Lang Son province. In particular, the number of trucks transporting fresh fruits accounts for more than 80%.

Talking to reporters, a representative of Lang Son Customs Department said that all agricultural products have been processed automatically by the customs system and completed in a very short time which is about 3-4 seconds. If the information declared to the customs authority is complete, the enterprise can completely declare the customs declaration in advance into the customs system before bringing the goods to the border gate. They only need to confirm the actually exported goods then goods will be cleared immediately.

There are no problems with customs procedures for exporting agricultural products. Almost 100% of agricultural product shipments, especially exported fresh fruits, do not carry out physical inspection, Customs only supervise and confirm the exported goods at the border gate.

Tan Thanh Customs guides businesses to carry out procedures for vehicles transporting goods. Photo: H.Nụ

To avoid congestion, Lang Son Customs has directed border-gate customs units to implement many solutions to speed up cargo clearance, especially for fresh fruits.

In particular, customs units at border gates coordinate with competent authorities to strictly implement pandemic prevention and control measures. Arranging customs officers to coordinate with competent forces to channel the priority channel for exported agricultural products at times of congestion, regularly monitor, grasp information, and promptly respond to concerns of related enterprises about customs procedures.

Notably, the units actively guide businesses and owners of the goods to carry out e-declaration in advance so that the clearance procedures will be processed quickly.

The guiding groups on supporting businesses proactively grasp the difficulties and problems of people and businesses in order to have solutions to support, update the situation, and provide information and advice to enterprises exporting agricultural products through border gates in the province.

In addition, Lang Son Customs also worked with competent agencies and forces at the border gate to hold talks and exchanges with the Chinese authority. From that, developing a plan to establish a "green zone"; agreed on a new cargo delivery plan at Huu Nghi and Tan Thanh border gates in order to strengthen clearance capacity and solve cargo congestion.

Mrs. Tran Thi Kim Oanh, representative of Hieu Hien Trading Production Co., Ltd. said: "As an enterprise that regularly operates import-export activities at Huu Nghi international border gate, we realize that the import and export procedures are no longer as cumbersome as before, although the cost savings are not high, it is also a very good signal. In the future, it is possible that clearance activities will be as favorable as before.

“The special thing is that at this time, the competent forces at the border gate have provided maximum support for clearance activities. In particular, Customs and Border Defence forces are working continuously, creating conditions for businesses to speed up freight forwarding. Border gate officers assisted businesses in completing documents and procedures for goods until 23:00 at night,” Mrs. Kim Oanh said.

According to many owners of goods that are waiting to carry out export procedures to China, the main reason for the congestion of agricultural products at the border gates in Lang Son is mainly related to the process of freight forwarding between traders in the condition that China still strengthens measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, some shipments of Vietnamese fruits and agricultural products have not yet met the quality and quarantine regulations required by the Chinese authority.

Refrigerated containers carrying fresh lychees are arranged in a priority channel by competent forces at Tan Thanh border gate. Photo: H.Nụ

It is forecast that the number of vehicles transporting agricultural products for export will be gathered at border gates in Lang Son province. Therefore, Lang Son Customs has developed many scenarios and solutions to facilitate trade.

According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Tai, Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department, the unit continued to grasp the import and export situation in the area, new policies and measures of China Customs to advise local authorities and the General Department of Vietnam Customs to continue promoting import and export activities.

Lang Son Customs will also continue to coordinate with local authorities to promote exchanges and talks with relevant Chinese authorities to exchange options related to freight forwarding at the border gates, ensuring the maintenance of trade flows on the Vietnam-China border, promoting reopening of import-export activities on other pairs of border gates on the border gate of the province.

Furthermore, strengthening the coordination with competent forces at the border gate in regulating traffic for trucks entering and leaving, ensuring no congestion, especially having solutions to avoid the congestion of freight forwarding at border gate areas such as Tan Thanh and Huu Nghi.

“Moreover, the unit continues to communicate to the import-export business community about free customs declaration software, software for declaring means of transport on exit and entry and manifest of imported goods so that businesses can understand and use the system. In addition, disseminating to enterprises operating warehouses, yards and locations to coordinate to support and guide import-export businesses, customs broker agents, individuals and organizations engage in import-export activities to proactively approach, declare, input data and process online on the Digital Border Gate Platform,” Mr. Nguyen Anh Tai said.

To facilitate enterprises in carrying out customs procedures for agricultural products when the volume of goods increases, Lang Son Customs has strengthened the arrangement of customs officers to process clearance procedures and supervise goods outside office hours, on weekends and public holidays; increasing working time in the peak period up to 23 hours to ensure goods will be cleared during the day.