An officer of the Customs Inspection Department performs an analysis of import and export goods. Photo: Quang Hung

According to Phan Van Cuong, of Duc Phat Trading, of the Transport and Service Company Limited (Hai Phong), currently the number of items subject to specialized inspection is still very high. In particular, the duplication of testing is not an unseen issue. Businesses have to go through both quality control procedures and quarantine, which is very time consuming.

Phan Van Cuong said, although the time to check the quality of goods has been accelerated, the shipment still has to wait for the quarantine time to completed. The total time to complete quarantine procedures takes 13 days. Specifically: five days to apply for an import license from the Department of Animal Health and three days to register for quarantine at the Sub-Department of Animal Health Region 2. After five days of sampling, the results will be available for shipment clearance.

Tran Quang Trung, Chairman of the Vietnam Dairy Association, also raised some current inadequacies. For example, if there is a consignment of the same type, with the same criteria, the inventory has to go through two management agencies. This causes congestion for businesses, as they have to wait for double the inspection and testing time to get to the stage of customs procedures.

According to Tran Quang Trung, if the draft Decree is issued, it will be a very good breakthrough, creating favorable conditions for enterprises to import into Vietnam. However, the Customs office alone cannot do it all, there must be a strong coordination mechanism of all ministries and branches with the General Department of Customs.

However, at present, goods subject to both quarantine and quality inspection under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are included. This document proposes to remove this group of goods from the Decree because it exceeds the scope of Decision No. 38/QD-TTg.

Meanwhile, businesses and associations believe that the current procedure still has many shortcomings, and will prove to be costly for businesses because they have to register on the National Single Window Portal (NSW). Previously, they just had to submit a paper application. The new process is causing businesses to go through three doors: register for quarantine and submit documents on NSW; submit the original medical certificate at the quarantine agency and invite the quarantine agency to take samples for testing. Therefore, the associations propose to include in the draft Decree to unify the two procedures that have to be carried out in NSW, to remove difficulties for production and business, since 70% of food shipments are now imported under quarantine.

According to the Ministry of Finance, if this group of goods is to be excluded from the draft Decree, then applications must be divided into two types of procedures. This will greatly reduce the effectiveness of the reform. Therefore, receiving opinions from associations and businesses encountering problems is very important.

An issue also raised in the draft Decree is the regulation for Group Two goods in the field of transportation. The Ministry of Transport proposed to exclude Group Two goods, subject to quality inspection, because currently the quality inspection procedure for this group of goods has been done across NSW, in response to reform requirements.

The Ministry of Finance believes that the inclusion of Group Two goods in the draft Decree is appropriate, according to the Law on Product and Goods Quality. Resolution 99/NQ-CP and Decision No. 38/QD-TTg .

However, the draft Decree only stipulates the inspection principles for Group Two. The Ministry of Transport has agreed to perform quality inspections for goods, however, inspection procedures must be carried out in NSW.