Scope

1. This Circular provides for cooperation in quality inspection and grant of customs clearance of imports required to undergo state quality inspection as prescribed by law.

2. This Circular does not apply to:

a) Luggage, personal belongs within tax-free allowance;

b) Goods of diplomatic entities and international organizations within tax-free allowance;

c) Samples for advertising purpose only; samples serving scientific research or research into its production;

d) Temporarily imported goods for displayed or introduction at a trade fair or exhibition;

dd) Gifts within tax-free allowance;

e) Goods exchanged by border residents within tax-free allowance;

g) Goods, supplies, machinery and equipment temporarily imported and re-exported without being used in Vietnam;

h) Transit or transshipped goods;

i) Goods sent to a bonded warehouse from abroad (other than goods sold domestically from a bonded warehouse);

k) Raw materials, supplies and samples for outward processing or manufacture of exports;

l) Duty-free goods sold to emigrating people (managed as temporarily imported goods);

m) Goods re-exported for repair or recycling at the request of a foreign partner;

n) Imports serving emergency purposes;

o) Imports serving national defense and security purposes;

p) Goods exempted from quality inspection by the Ministry of Science and Technology and relevant Ministries.

3. Imports that are radioactive substances or radioactive products defined by the Law on Atomic Energy and its instructional documents.

Cooperation in notifying quality inspection result

1. The inspecting authority shall carry out the inspection and notify the inspection result within 03 days from the day on which the conformity assessment result is received if the shipment is satisfactory.

2. The inspecting authority shall send the inspection result to National Single-window Information Portal in accordance with Article 35 of the Law on Customs for the customs authority to grant customs clearance.

If the inspecting authority has not connected with National Single-window Information Portal, it shall send the inspection result by fax or electronically to the customs authority.

Where the inspection result cannot be sent to the customs authority, the inspecting authority shall it to the declarant who will send them to the customs authority in order to have customs clearance granted.

3. If the inspection or conformity assessment duration has to be extended because of technical issues or inevitable difficulties, the inspecting authority shall inform the declarant and the customs authority of the reasons and deadline for giving the result.

4. Relevant Ministries shall provide templates of the notice of imports quality inspection result. The notice has to specify whether the import shipment is satisfactory or not and remedial measures if it is not satisfactory.

Cooperation in information provision

1. Information to be exchanged between:

a) Customs authorities;

b) Inspecting authorities; and

c) Conformity assessment bodies.

2. Information to be provided:

a) Where the customs authority finds the quality of an import shipment is suspicious, it shall inform the inspecting authority or request the inspecting authority to inspect goods within the customs controlled area;

b) The supervisory authority, inspecting authority and conformity assessment body that are informed of a suspicious import shipment or finds another shipment of the same kind of goods whose quality is not satisfactory shall apply enhanced goods inspection at the checkpoint of import and inform the customs authority to supervise the shipment in cooperation until the shipment is proved satisfactory by inspection;

c) During the inspection and sampling of a shipment allowed to be put into storage, if the inspecting agency and conformity assessment body find that the quantity or categories of the goods is not conformable with that on the documents, they shall take the measures specified in Article 7 of this Circular or inform the customs authority.

3. Means of information provision

a) Information shall be exchanged by phone, fax, the Internet, post, express mail, or directly;

b) Relevant organizations shall provide their phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses for relevant organizations in the same provinces or customs area to send and receive information;

4. Information shall be provision by phone, fax, email, official dispatches (to superior authorities); the manner of information provision shall be specified in page two of the request for quality inspection (for customs authorities, inspecting authorities and conformity assessment bodies) or the request for permission to put goods into storage (for customs authorities).

5. Information shall be provided for relevant organizations within 04 working hours or 02 working days from the time of availability of information mentioned in Clause 2 of this Article.

Cooperation in penalty imposition

1. Customs offences discovered by customs authorities or other authorities shall be recorded and dealt with in accordance with the Government's Decree No. 127/2013/NĐ-CP dated October 15, 2013 on penalties for customs offences.

2. Administrative violations against regulations on product quality discovered by inspecting authorities or other authorities shall be recorded and dealt with in accordance with the Government's Decree No. 80/2013/NĐ-CP.

Responsibility of declarants

1. Follow customs procedures and quality inspection quality in accordance with effective regulations of law.

2. Select a conformity assessment body appointed by the supervisory Ministry to assess quality of imports.

3. Submit the conformity assessment result to the inspecting authority and quality inspection result to the customs authority to complete customs clearance procedures as prescribed by law.

4. If the inspection result is not satisfactory, the declarant may propose a remedial measure to the inspecting authority in writing, such as: recycling, destruction, re-export or repurposing.

If the declarant recycling, the proposal shall specify the recycling plan, location and the person in charge of recycling.

5. Comply with the decision issued by a competent authority; pay the remedial costs in accordance with regulations of law on administrative penalties.

Responsibility of conformity assessment bodies

1. Assess quality of imports within the scope specified by supervisory Ministries; issue certificates of satisfactory quality to declarants as prescribed by law.

2. Cooperate with customs authorities, provide relevant information specified in Article 6 of this Circular and supervise declarants in implementing remedial measures in case of unsatisfactory quality of goods.

3. Collect goods quality assessment fees as prescribed.

Responsibility of customs authorities

1. Follow customs procedures, procedures for putting goods into storage and procedures for granting customs clearance to goods required to undergo quality inspection in accordance with effective regulations of law and this Circular.

2. Cooperate with inspecting authorities and conformity assessment bodies in carrying out inspection and sampling in accordance with customs and product quality laws; monitor implementation of remedial measures (recycling, destruction, re-export, repurposing); provide relevant information specified in Article 6 of this Circular.

Cooperate with inspecting authorities in carrying out enhanced quality inspection of imports in accordance with Article 9 of Circular No. 27/2012/TT-BKHCN dated December 12, 2012 of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

3. Receive electronic (from National Single-window Information Portal) or physical (from inspecting authorities and declarants) notices of quality inspection results.

4. Discover violations of law, issue violation records and penalty imposition decisions in accordance with law and instructions this Circular.