The representative of the Customs Control and Supervision Department instructs customs procedures for e-commerce platforms operating in Vietnam.

At a meeting with representatives of the Temu e-commerce platform in Vietnam on November 27, Nguyen Bac Hai, Deputy Director of the Customs Control and Supervision Department said that after being licensed by the competent authority to operate in Vietnam as per regulations, customs procedures for import and export goods traded via the Temu e-commerce platform will be processed as those of other licensed businesses.

At the meeting, the representative of Temu Vietnam said that the company has worked with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to complete the application for providing e-commerce services in Vietnam.

“The Ministry of Industry and Trade has provided instructions on procedures and supplemented necessary documents, Temu has supplemented the dossier and waited for feedback. The company highly complies with the law and hopes that the Customs will instruct to promote the imports to Vietnam soon and smoothly.

The representative of the Customs Control and Supervision Department said that Temu has not yet been licensed, so there is no basis to implement customs procedures, and affirmed that after the Ministry of Industry and Trade grants an operating license to Temu, the Customs will carry out customs procedures for import and export goods traded through the e-commerce platform equally with other licensed suppliers and importers and exporters.

The interface of the e-commerce platform informs about the ongoing licensing procedures.

Regarding import and export activities via e-commerce platforms, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has directed local customs department to strengthen inspection, supervision and control of goods traded via e-commerce.

To ensure state management requirements during the time when the Decree on customs management of exported and imported goods traded via e-commerce has not been issued, the General Department of Vietnam Customs requests the directors of provincial and municipal customs departments to require their units to strengthen inspection, supervision and control of goods traded via e-commerce.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs asks customs branches at the entry gate to fully perform customs processes, especially for shipments transported independently from the entry gate to the centralized supervision sites for postal and express delivery goods.

Do not carry out customs procedures for independent transport declarations that do not declare information about the name of the website providing e-commerce services, the application providing e-commerce services, the name of the e-commerce website selling goods, the application selling goods;

Do not carry out customs procedures for independent transport declarations that declare information about the website providing e-commerce services, the application providing e-commerce services, the website selling goods, the application selling goods but these websites and applications have not been registered to operate in Vietnam or have not been announced on the e-commerce management system at the online.gov.vn website of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The Customs branches managing the centralized supervision sites for postal and express delivery goods does not carry out customs procedures for import declarations that do not declare the name of the website providing e-commerce services, the application providing e-commerce services, the name of the e-commerce website selling goods, the application selling goods.

Regarding licensing of e-commerce activities, Ms. Le Thi Ha, Head of the Department of E-commerce Management - Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that e-commerce platforms such as Temu or other international platforms must comply with Vietnamese laws on e-commerce, specifically as per Decree 52/2013/ND-CP and Decree 85/2021/ND-CP. If a platform has a Vietnamese language and domain name, it must comply with legal regulations when operating in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has strengthened supervision and coordinated with agencies within the Ministry to work directly with the legal team of cross-border platforms subject to Vietnamese law to ensure that these platforms understand and comply with Vietnamese law.