Customs officers of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department inspect goods imported through Cat Lai port. Photo: T.H

Problems in the application of license

At the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, when carrying out procedures for many shipments of aquatic feed, the enterprise had a certificate of registration for state inspection of the quality of imported goods, certified by the inspection agency, but their goods have not been cleared due to problems with quality inspection results.

According to the General Department of Customs, according to the provisions of Circular 16/2021/TT-BNNPTNT dated December 20, 2021 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, aquatic feed and aquatic environmental treatment products must undergo State inspection of quality before customs clearance.

According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 24 of Decree 85/2019/ND-CP, for goods on the list of goods subject to specialized inspection before customs clearance, the customs authority shall decide on customs clearance on the basis of notification results of specialized inspection agencies.

Clause 3, Article 1 of Decree 74/2018/ND-CP stipulates that only goods specified in national technical regulations prescribing the method for declaration of conformity based on the certification results of a designated inspection agency must go through pre-customs clearance inspection.

The specialized inspection agency shall inspect and provide inspection results, and the customs agency shall conduct customs clearance on the basis of the notification of the specialized inspection agency.

According to the provisions of Points 2a, 2b, Clause 3, Article 1 of Decree 74/2018/ND CP, for goods specified national technical regulations prescribing the method for declaration of conformity 2a and 2b: Customs clearance shall be carried out on the basis of the quality inspection registration certificate authorized by the inspection agency, the inspection and assessment of conformity shall be carried out after the customs clearance.

In fact, when importing aquatic feeds, the enterprise only presents the Certificate of Quarantine and Quality Inspection Registration issued by the Directorate of Fisheries to the Customs agency for customs clearance. Explaining this issue, the importing enterprise said the Directorate of Fisheries only confirms on the Certificate of Quarantine and Quality Inspection Registration, but issues a notification of the quality inspection results and the quality inspection before customs clearance complies with Circular 16/2021 dated December 20, 2021 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which means that the enterprise submits an inspection registration application to the Directorate of Fisheries, while the inspection complies with the provisions of Decree 74/2018/ND-CP. Therefore, seafood shipments that have met the inspection conditions under Point 2b, Clause 3, Article 1 of Decree 74/2018/ND-CP will be granted clearance when a certificate of quality inspection registration is submitted.

Thus, according to the provisions of Circular 16/2022 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Customs agency has no basis to conduct customs clearance.

A temporary solution

To solve the problem, the Directorate of Fisheries has requested Customs carry out customs clearance on the basis of the quality inspection registration certificate issued by the inspection agency for aquatic feed shipments subject to the method 2b as prescribed at point 2b, Clause 3, Article 1 of Decree 74/2018/ND-CP.

According to the General Department of Customs, the nature of the problem is inconsistent regulations in the documents of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development related to quality inspection of animal feed, specifically Circular 16/2021 dated December 20, 2021 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, leading to difficulties for businesses and Customs agency in customs clearance.

According to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 156 of the Law on promulgation of documents, issues related to quality inspection of aquatic feed and aquatic environment treatment products, the Customs authority shall apply the documents issued after Circular 16/2021. The Customs authority shall decide on customs clearance on the basis of the inspection result notification of the inspection agency.

While waiting for the opinion of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on amending relevant documents in order to remove difficulties and obstacles for businesses, the General Department of Customs said, for shipments of aquatic feed and aquatic environment treatment products subject to the method of declaration of conformity 2b, the customs agency shall decide on customs clearance on the basis of the quality inspection registration certificate issued by the inspection agency as prescribed in point 2b, Clause 3, Article 1 of Decree 74/2018. This is supposed to be a temporary solution.

According to the General Department of Customs, to have consistency in customs clearance for aquatic feed and aquatic environment treatment products, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should review and revise related legal documents and provide instructions for the Customs agency and businesses.