News

The General Department of Vietnam Customs guides implementation of Decree 15 on food safety

Summary

On 9th March 2018, the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) issued Official Letter 1267/TCHQ-GSQL to guide local Customs departments to implement the Government’s Decree 15/2018/ND-CP dated 2nd February 2018 on food safety management to unify the handling of obstacles of enterprises (Decree 15).

Updated on : 30-03-2018

Accordingly, the GDVC guides that material goods which are directly imported by enterprises for production (including production for export, domestic consumption or processing for foreign partners) are exempted from procedure of regulation conformity announcement and State food safety inspection.

For regime code, when carrying out Customs procedures, enterprises will base on the list of import and export regime code in the VNACCS/VCIS system to implement. At the same time the enterprises must declare the using purpose of imported consignment, declare by themselves, and are responsible for using. If changing using purpose, the enterprises must report to the Customs and implement the regulation conformity announcement and State food safety inspection in accordance with regulations before changing. If using goods is not in line with declaration, the enterprises shall be handled in accordance with regulations (when being detected by competent agencies).

Regarding the receipt of regulation conformity announcement, the GDVC said that in order to have a basis to identify imported goods subject to exemption from State food safety inspection in accordance with regulations, when carrying out Customs procedures, the declarants must submit the copy of the receipt (certified by enterprises). If the receipt was issued in National Single Window, Customs officer shall search in the system and do not require enterprises to submit it.

Besides, there are some other obstacles, such as identifying cases subject to reduced inspection, agency in charge of State food safety inspection, and the list of goods subject to inspection. The GDVC issued an official letter to discuss with relevant ministries and will guide promptly when receiving feedback.

Source:  Customs News