Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien proposed the General Department of Customs of China to exempt Sars-Cov-2 testing on Vietnamese agricultural, aquatic and frozen foods exported to China.

Illustrative Photo: Internet

The Covid-19 pandemic is returning to the region. In early May 2021, Vietnam began to record many new cases of Covid-19 infection in the community. Cambodia and Laos hasfaced the 3rd wave of the pandemic since March 2021.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that all three countries, China, Laos, and Cambodia, are likely to continue to tighten prevention measures at road border gates, affecting movement of imports and exports across borders.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien sent an official request to the Minister of Industry and Trade of Laos, the Minister of Commerce of Cambodia, and Director General of the General Department of Customs of China on close coordination in implementing the customs clearance model at land border gates in the direction of preventing the pandemic while facilitating movement of goods.

In particular, the Minister also asked the General Department of Customs of China to exempt Sars-Cov-2 testing on Vietnamese agricultural, aquatic and frozen foods exported to China.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade affirmed that it will continue to work closely with ministries and border localities to monitor pandemic prevention and control, customs clearance of goods through land border gates to promptly realize difficulties and problems.

Earlier since the Covid-19 pandemic appeared, most countries have tended to tighten import regulations to prevent the virus from entering their countries through imported goods, especially agricultural and aquatic products.

This has caused many difficulties for Vietnamese exports, businesses and farmers. There were times when Vietnam's agricultural exports were stuck at border gates adjacent to China (March 2020); aquatic products could not be exported to Laos and Cambodia because these countries have issued measures to suspend imports of aquatic products (Lao: December 2020, and Cambodia:January 2021).

Faced with these difficulties, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has worked with relevant ministries and agencies to propose China, Laos and Cambodia agree to deploy a new clearance model at land border gates from the end of the first quarter of 2020.

As a result, the movement of goods through the land border gates on the northern, western and southwestern border lines has been smooth without interruption for most of 2020.

In addition, Cambodia and Laos have canceled measures to suspend seafood imports from Vietnam (Cambodia: February 2021, Laos: April 2021).

Despite the pandemic, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Laos, Cambodia and China recorded strong growth in 2020 and the first three months of 2021.