Regarding the requirements for assessing the conformity between imported materials and equipment (rails, recorders, steel, semi-automatic barriers) manufactured according to foreign standards, Ms. Cuc asked, if the above materials do not belong to Group II, is it necessary to assess the conformity between foreign standards and standards applied in maintenance work? Or does the importer have to announce the standards applicable to the above-mentioned products and goods before putting the works into use? In which document is the conformity assessment or announcement of applicable standards, etc. mentioned above (if any) specified?

In case the above-mentioned importing enterprise fails to announce applicable standards 1, but the investor or contractor still puts products and goods into the works, it is considered as products and goods that do not satisfy the conditions. Quality assurance, how to handle this behavior?

The assessment of compatibility, synchronization and compliance with national technical regulations specified in Article 8 of Decree No. 15/2021/ND-CP can be construed as an assessment of compatibility and synchronism for both standards and standards. Does the base standard apply? Compatibility can be understood as meeting 100% of the criteria specified in national technical regulations and basic standards.

In case the above-mentioned imported supplies and equipment have not fully complied with the provisions of the law on standards, regulations and relevant laws for the imported consignment before being put into use for maintenance, the handling of administrative violations is specified in which normative documents?

- Regarding requirements for quality control of imported materials and equipment before and after customs clearance:

In case the importer after and before customs clearance fails to announce the applicable standards, fails to satisfy the product quality conditions as prescribed by the Law on Product and Goods Quality, or has not yet announced the technical-regulation conformity (if any), ) for materials and equipment subject to announcement; or if the assessment method is not organized according to the testing methods according to specialized requirements but has been put into use in the works, how will the General Department of Customs handle the lots of imported materials and equipment (rails, railway recorders, group II birch wood, automatic guardrails and equipment related to guardrails) to ensure quality control of products and goods under the responsibility of the General Department according to regulations?

International and Vietnamese regulations on identification and certification of origin (C/O), quality certification (C/Q) of competent authorities at the place of production (including product manufacturing, goods in a foreign country), as well as the required documents to be accompanied by the above-mentioned certificates.

So, in case, for the reason of avoiding the detection of the origin of goods, the enterprise reports to the inspection agency that the certificate is lost, how is the retrieval of C/O, C/Q data performed?

In which document is the handling of administrative violations on forging C/O and C/Q certificates specified?

The fact that the US side discovered that the steel for rail production with HS code ... belongs to the list of anti-dumping applications for shipments imported to the US, in case this batch of rails is imported into Vietnam, the control of rail prices in the customs declaration What regulations should be followed to ensure objectivity, fairness and not "dumping"?

In the context of the difficult situation of the COVID-19 epidemic from 2019 until now, has the General Department of Customs have any specific regulations on the storage time in order to both control imported products and goods and ensure the quality of imported goods? customs inspection or not? In which document is the regulation on customs clearance time for the above shipments if eligible for customs clearance?

The Ministry of Finance responded to this issue as follows:

Responsibility for announcing standards applicable to imported equipment Cuc's question did not specify the description of the goods, the HS code of the goods, so there is no basis for detailed instructions. Please study the following regulations and compare them with the actual goods to implement:

According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 5 of the Law on Product and Goods Quality No. 05/2007/QH12 dated November 21, 2007 of the National Assembly:

"Group 1 products and goods are quality controlled on the basis of standards announced by manufacturers to apply".

Group 2 products and goods are quality controlled on the basis of corresponding technical regulations promulgated by competent state management agencies and standards announced by manufacturers for application.

According to the provisions of Article 23 of the Law on Product and Goods Quality No. 05/2007/QH12 dated November 21, 2007 of the National Assembly: "The importer automatically publishes basic characteristics and warning information, the standard number on the goods".

Therefore, in case imported materials and equipment (rails, recorders, steel, semi-automatic shields) manufactured according to foreign standards are not in group 2, there is no need to assess the conformity between these standards, the quality management on the basis of standards announced by the manufacturer applied.

Importing manufacturers are responsible for announcing the standards applicable to products and goods before they are put into use.

Regarding the assessment of conformity or publication of applicable standards, it is recommended that your company comply with the provisions of the Law on Product and Goods Quality No. 05/2007/QH12, the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. No. 68/2006/QH11 dated June 29, 2006 and guiding documents.

Regarding the handling of violations of standards and regulations, research proposals are specified in the Government's Decree No. 119/2017/ND-CP dated November 1, 2017 on sanctioning of administrative violations in the field of administrative law, measurement and quality of products and goods and Decree No. 128/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 providing for penalties for administrative violations in the field of customs and guiding documents enforce.

Suggest that your company refer to the above regulations for implementation. In case of problems, please contact the Customs Sub-department where the declaration is registered for specific instructions.

Ms. Cuc's company can find the content of the documents mentioned in the legal documents section on the Customs Portal.

Specialized agencies control the quality of imported goods before and after customs clearance

Pursuant to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 8 of Decree No. 132/2008/ND-CP dated December 31, 2008 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Product and Goods Quality:

"1. The state inspection of the quality of imported goods (hereinafter referred to as the quality inspection of imported goods) shall be conducted by the product and goods quality inspection agency for goods in the 2 or other goods when there are signs or risks of causing unsafety".

Therefore, the quality control of imported goods before and after customs clearance is the responsibility of specialized inspection agencies.

Pursuant to the provisions in Clause 2, Article 8 of Decree No. 132/2008/ND-CP:

"In case the quality of goods meets the specified requirements, the inspection agency shall issue a notice to the customs office and the importer to carry out customs clearance procedures. If the quality of the goods does not meet the specified requirements. Depending on the nature and seriousness of the violation, the inspecting agency shall propose the competent state agency to apply one or more of the following handling measures:

a) Request the importer to re-export such goods;

b) Request the importer to recycle or destroy according to regulations. Products after being recycled must comply with regulations on management of imported goods;

c) Product and goods quality inspection agencies consider intensifying inspection at border gates or propose competent state agencies to issue decisions to suspend or stop the import of these unconformable goods. 

Therefore, for imported goods subject to quality inspection before customs clearance, in case the specialized inspection agency notices that the shipment is not qualified, the customs authority will handle the violation and apply the following regulations to force the re-export of goods, recycling or destruction according to regulations.

For imported goods subject to quality inspection after customs clearance, specialized management agencies are responsible for inspecting and handling (if violations are detected) according to regulations of specialized ministries.

Must submit a certificate of origin upon customs clearance

Pursuant to the provisions of Clause 5, Article 1 of Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC dated June 5, 2018 regulating customs dossiers, customs declarants are not required to submit quality certification documents (C/ O) to the customs office.

Regarding the proof of origin, the customs declarant must submit the proof of origin to the customs authority as prescribed in Article 4 of Circular No. 38/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20, 2018, The Ministry of Finance shall prescribe the determination of origin of exported and imported goods.

In case the customs declarant fails to submit the proof of origin of goods as prescribed, the provisions of Clause 4, Article 4 of Circular No. 38/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20, 2018 shall apply:

 "4. In case the proof of origin is not submitted as prescribed in this Article, the following shall be followed:

a) In case the customs declarant fails to submit the proof of origin as prescribed in Point a, Clause 1 of this Article, the imported goods shall apply the preferential tax rate (MFN) or normal and be cleared for customs clearance according to the law.

When submitting additional proof of origin documents within the time limit specified in Clause 1, Article 7 of this Circular, the customs declarant shall make additional declarations at the special preferential tax rate; in case the paid tax amount is larger than the payable tax amount, it shall be handled according to regulations on handling overpaid tax amount;

b) If the customs declarant fails to submit the proof of origin as prescribed in Point b, Point c, Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article, the goods will not be cleared from customs and will be handled in accordance with regulations of law.

In the case of goods specified in Point b, Point c, Clause 1 of this Article, the customs declarant cannot submit proof of origin but the goods are concluded by a competent Vietnamese authority that the goods are sufficient. import conditions or import permits according to specialized laws, customs offices shall carry out customs clearance according to regulations;

c) If the customs declarant fails to submit the proof of origin as prescribed in Point d, Clause 1 of this Article, the goods shall be subject to anti-dumping or countervailing duty or safeguard duty or tax rate outside the tariff quota for the entire consignment and is cleared according to regulations.

Forging certificates of origin can be fined up to VND 80 million

Regarding retrieving data of certificate of origin (C/O), an electronic certificate of origin (C/O) can be looked up on the electronic system of the country or the agency issuing the C/O.

Pursuant to the provisions of Point a, Clause 7, Article 11 of Decree No. 128/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 of the Government providing for penalties for administrative violations in the customs field:

"7. A fine ranging from VND 40,000,000 to VND 80,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following violations:

a) Using forged vouchers and documents; using illegal vouchers and documents to declare, submit or present to the customs authority without being examined for penal liability;".

Pursuant to Article 14 of Decree No. 128/2020/ND-CP:

"1. Acts of tax evasion include:

a) Using vouchers, documents that are not legal, not true to the actual transaction to declare tax; arbitrarily erasing or correcting vouchers, leading to a lack of payable tax amounts or an increase in the exempted, reduced, refunded or non-collected tax amounts;".

Therefore, regarding the handling of administrative violations of forging certificates of origin, the customs authority shall sanction enterprises for using forged documents and documents according to the provisions of Article 11 of this Law. As mentioned above, in case of detecting tax evasion related to the forging of documents, the customs authority will impose penalties for tax evasion according to the provisions of Article 14 above.

Basis for customs valuation of imported goods

Regarding the provisions related to goods imported into Vietnam applying anti-dumping tax, according to the provisions of Article 21 of Circular No. 39/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance stipulating on customs value of imported and exported goods:

"1. Value database means information related to customs valuation of exported and imported goods collected, aggregated and classified by customs authorities. Customs is developed by the General Department of Customs, unified and regularly updated, including:

a) Customs price data management system;

b) List of export and import goods with risks in value and reference price attached.

… 3. Value databases are used to:

a) Develop a list of export and import goods with risks in value;

b) Check the customs value of exported and imported goods;

c) Serving the state management of export and import of goods and other fields.

Pursuant to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 3 of Circular No. 60/2019/TT-BTC dated August 30, 2019 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 39/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25/ 2015 of the Ministry of Finance stipulating the customs value of imported and exported goods;

"3. The customs authority shall determine the customs value in the following cases:

a) The customs declarant cannot determine the customs value according to the methods specified in this Circular;

b) There are sufficient grounds and grounds for rejecting the customs value declared and determined by the declarant himself;

c) There are grounds for determining the customs value declared by the customs declarant, or self-determination is not suitable.

Therefore, the customs authority relies on the value database to control the price of goods imported into Vietnam. If there are sufficient grounds to reject the customs value declared by the customs declarant, the customs authority shall reject such value and determine the value of the imported goods. In case the customs value is still in doubt, the customs authority and the enterprise shall conduct price consultation.

In the context of the difficult situation of the COVID-19 epidemic since 2019, the General Department of Customs has issued guiding documents to ensure the dual goal of effective anti-epidemic and smooth import and export activities. Regarding the storage time of goods during the COVID-19 period, the General Department of Customs has issued relevant guidance as in Official Dispatch No. 3695/TCHQ-GSQL dated July 22, 2021.