At present, import and export of goods has become a common activity for enterprises engaged in production and trading of goods. In particular, some items, especially goods imported into Vietnam are cleared for trading only after having undergone specialized inspection. The lack of a separate and proper system of documentation for this has caused many difficulties for businesses. So what are the regulations on specialized inspection for import and export goods that should be noted? The following article will provide an overview of this.
For specialized inspection, currently, there is no document that specifically defines this concept. However, the concept of goods subject to specialized inspection is stated in Article 35 of the ‘Law on Customs 2014’ and specified in Clause 5, Article 3 of ‘Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP’ of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Customs (hereinafter referred to as Decree 08/2015/ND-CP for short) as follows:
“Export and import goods subject to specialized inspection are exported or imported goods subject to inspection for quality, health, culture, animal quarantine, plant quarantine, and food safety according to provisions of law.”
From this definition, it can be understood that specialized inspection includes collection of samples by a competent authority to check whether such goods meet the requirements or technical standards as prescribed by the specialized industry or not.
Regarding documents regulating specialized inspection, previously, there was Decision No. 50/2006/QD-TTg stipulating the list of products and goods subject to quality inspection. This document has expired and has been annulled by Decision No. 37/2017/QD-Ttg dated 17 August 2017. Currently, there is no replacement for the annulled document. Therefore, in order to know if imported and exported goods are subject to specialized inspection, enterprises need to look up goods intended for import and export in the list of goods notified by specialized management ministries. Enterprises can refer to some of the following documents:
By looking at the abovementioned regulations, we see that the range of goods subject to specialized inspection is quite wide. However, there are still few exemptions from specialized inspection specified in Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP, Decree No. 74/2018/ND-CP, Decree No. 85/2019/ND -CP, consolidated and supplemented in Decision No. 38/QD-TTg dated 12/01/2021. Accordingly, cases exempt from quality inspection and food safety inspection include:
Currently, with the rapid development of science and technology, a commodity that integrates with many features leads to having to comply with specialized management of many different agencies. An example of this is the LED TV. This is an electric device subject to energy efficiency management according to Decision 1182/QD-BCT of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In addition, due to the integration of wifi and DVB-T2 transceiver functions, it also falls under the specialized management of the Ministry of Information and Communications according to Circular No. 11/2020/TT-BTTTT. Thus, for this product to be cleared, it may have to go through many different procedures, which take a lot of time and costs for businesses.
With the project approved in Decision No. 38/QD-TTg, specialized inspection activities are expected to be comprehensively reformed. New regulations on specialized inspection activities for imported goods are expected to be brough for speeding up procedures for quality inspection and food safety inspection. This reduces contact points between enterprises and agencies and organizations, thereby cutting costs required for customs clearance.
The article is based on applicable law at the time noted as above and may no longer be appropriate at the time the reader approaches this article as the applicable law has changed and the specific case that the reader wishes to apply. Therefore, the article is only for reference.