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Plan to cut specialized inspection of the ministries

Ministry of Science and Technology has not set specific targets

At present, the Ministries: Industry and Trade; Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD); Health; Transportation and Science and Technology are considered the units which have the largest number of list of goods subject to specialized management and inspection.

However, while many ministries such as Industry and Trade and MARD have set specific targets for reducing the list of goods subject to specialized inspection, the Ministry of Science and Technology has not set specific targets.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, over the past time, products and goods subject to inspection before customs clearance have been cut from 24 groups of products and goods to 2 groups of products and goods. Thus, 91% of groups of goods and products managed by the Ministry have been transferred to post-clearance audit (inspection after Customs clearance), exceeding the target of Resolution 19 and the target of ASEAN + 4 and completing the task 9 months earlier than the assigned plan by the Government.

With the above results, the Ministry of Science and Technology is likely be confident about the improvement of specialized management and inspection over the past time. Thus this Ministry has set a general target in the coming time, which is “ in the coming time, the Ministry will continue maintaining and boosting the above activities”

However, according to the reporter's understanding, the list of goods subject to specialized management and inspection of the Ministry of Science and Technology is still significant. Specifically, in the Decision 3482 / QD-BKHCN dated 8th of December, 2017 of the Ministry of Science and Technology, there are hundreds of goods subject to specialized management and inspection by the Ministry.

Most of these groups subject to specialized inspection are transferred into post-clearance audit and there are 21 goods in 3 groups, including petrol, diesel fuel and biofuel; Liquefied Petroleum Gas-LPG; Helmets for motorcycle riders must still be inspected before Customs clearance.

Thus, actually, the number of goods subject to specialized inspection by the Ministry of Science and Technology has not been reduced much but mainly changed in the management mode (pre-clearance inspection into post-clearance audit).

The Ministries of Agriculture and Industry and Trade committed to follow the roadmap.

The MARD currently has 7,698 commodity lines of 251 commodity groups subject to specialized inspection, which includes: 53 commodity groups subject to quarantine; 104 commodity groups subject to quality inspection; and 94 commodity groups subject to food safety inspection.

To facilitate the business community, the MARD has proposed to exclude 152 groups of goods and products from the list of goods subject to specialized inspection under the Ministry's management scope (accounting for 60.6% of total groups of goods subject to specialized inspection ). Among them, 37/53 groups subject to quarantine are removed; 87/104 groups subject to quality inspection are removed and 44/94 groups subject to food safety inspection are removed.

Regarding the reduction and simplification of administrative procedures, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the ministry now has 64 administrative procedures related to specialized inspection. Specifically, the quarantine sector has 23 procedures; quality inspection has 30 procedures and food safety inspection has 11 procedures. After reviewing, the ministry proposed to reduce and simplify 35 administrative procedures (reaching 54.6%).

Notably, the MARD aims to develop and promulgate 13 national technical regulations and 127 Vietnamese standards related to specialized inspection.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade aims to reduce and simplify 50% of the list of goods, products and procedures of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Identifying the comprehensive reform of specialized inspection as a key task in the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade set a target to cut and simplify 50% of list of goods and procedures of specialized inspection.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will promulgate a Circular regulating the list of commodity HS codes subject to specialized inspection and an annual review plan in line with the list of commodity HS codes of the Ministry of Finance. At the same time, promulgating a plan to amend and supplement the system of legal documents related to the Ministry's specialized inspections from now to 2020.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will approve the project on reviewing and developing a system of national technical standards from now to 2020, with a vision to 2030, in which the reform progress of specialized inspection procedures from now to 2020 is the first priority.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes the competent authorities to consider solutions for groups of goods of which specialized inspection procedures are overlapping between regulations by the Government on assigning the Ministry of Industry and Trade to manage the food safety and food quality inspection for group 2, regulations by the MARD on animal and plant quarantine, regulations by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs on inspection for machines, equipment with strict requirements on labour safety.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will issue a circular to announce HS codes for products and goods with specialized inspection procedures for food safety. Group of paper towels, toilet paper, tissue paper must be subject to quality inspection according to technical standards.

Source:  Customs News