The Government, led by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, will take stern stance on counterfeit goods, product origin fraud and transshipment of illegal goods, said Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung. 

Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung  addresses the event.
Photo: VGP

 Dung made the above statement at his working session with the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance on Friday.

Amid rising trade tensions between nations, the above matters have greatly affected the production of genuine enterprises, the reputation of Vietnamese products and the nation’s business climate, Dung stressed.

He also said the Government is determined to impose strict penalties on product origin fraud and transshipment of illegal goods without exceptions.

Currently, there are two types of origin fraud related to preferential Certificate of Origin (C/O) and non-preferential C/O respectively granted by the Ministry Trade and Industry and the VCCI, Dung added.

C/O issuance should be convenient but we need to make sure that there is no room for origin fraud because it could turn Viet Nam into a transit point for counterfeit exports to third country, the Minister-Chairman said.

Viet Nam has taken measures to crack down on counterfeit goods and origin fraud in accordance with the country’s commitments in “new-generation free trade agreements, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which took effect for the country from January 14, 2019.

To translate commitments into national legislation, the Government issued Decree No. 57/2019/ND-CP dated June 26, 2019 on Tariff Schedules on Preferential Export Duties and Special Preferential Import Duties in implementing CPTPP Agreement for the period of 2019 – 2022.

Tariff schedules under CPTPP are specified in Appendix 1, 2 of Decree No. 57/2019/ND-CP including codes, descriptions and duty rates.

Decree No. 57 also sets out conditions for goods eligible for special preferential tariffs, including origin conditions.

On July 4, 2019, the PM issued Decision No. 824 approving a plan to enhance the State management in the fight against evading trade regulations and origin fraud.

The same day, the PM required the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the VCCI to report on inspection of origin of imports in the first half of 2019.

Dung said the PM also assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to develop Government’s draft resolution on urgent measures to counter product origin fraud.

Strengthening inspection of exports prone to origin fraud

The VCCI said it has strengthened inspection and made a list of products prone to origin fraud, including those exported to the US, over the past nine months.

The VCCI’s relevant units inspected 262 production facilities, five times higher than the previous year and denied to grant C/O to 30 products.

Meanwhile, deputy head of the General Department of Customs Mai Xuan Thanh asserted that the customs force will steer inspection to items that witness remarkable high export growth, from 15% and above.

The customs agency is considering amendments to a decree on administrative sanctions in customs domain in a bid to step up the fight against origin fraud.

On November 14-15, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Viet Nam, together with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Trade and Industry jointly organized a workshop on international best practices to prevent origin fraud, illegal transshipment, and the evasion of trade remedies.