I. CUSTOMS TAXES & VALUATION

No capped value for imports being gift/present

This is the guidance from the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City in Official Letter No. 3437/HQHCMGSQL dated 24/11/2020. In detail, machinery (100% new) imported as gift should be declared to the Customs using H11 import mode, and there is no limitation on value of such gift under the prevailing regulation. It is the importer’s obligation to determine the Customs dutiable value of the gift for declaration at import stage.

Impose anti-dumping duty on some cold-rolled (cold-pressed) carbon steel in rolls or plates originated from China

2 On 21/12/2020, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (“MoIT”) released Decision No. 3390/QD-BCT officially imposing anti-dumping duty on some cold-rolled (cold-pressed) carbon steel in rolls or plates originated from China. In particular, the goods subject to anti-dumping duty in this Decision is cold-rolled (cold-pressed) carbon steel in rolls or plates, alloy or non-alloy, flat-rolled, less than 1,600mm wide, 0.108mm to 2.55mm thick, annealed or not annealed, covered or coated with inorganic matter, or not covered or coated, belonging to various Heading from 7209 to 7211 or 7225. The official rates of the antidumping duty vary from 4.43% to 25.22% by exporter/producer. Nonetheless, there are exceptions to this duty if the products fall into one of the following types: • Cold-rolled stainless steel; • Silicon electroplated steel (electroplated steel); • Black steel sheet (black corrugated iron) rolled to tin; • High speed steel; • Corrugated steel; • Coated cold-rolled steel. The duration to apply this anti-dumping duty is 05 years from the effective date of this Decision, unless otherwise being repealed or extended by other decisions of the MoIT. 

Guidance on the importation of rubber gloves

On 09/12/2020, the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh city issued Official Letter No. 3612/HQHCM-TXNK providing guidance on the HS code classification and duty rate for imported rubber gloves as follows:

• Regarding HS code classification: Rubber gloves belong to Heading 4015, in which the detailed HS code would depend on the actual usage purpose of the product. If the gloves are designed to use in surgery, they should be declared under HS code 4015.11.00; for rubber gloves used as housewares, HS code would be 4015.10.00.

• Regarding tax rates: The applicable import duty rate would depend on the product’s origin, other associated dossier/document, and the applicable tariff chosen by the importer. As for VAT, 5% rate should be applied if the product is medical gloves; otherwise, the applicable VAT rate should be determined in accordance with the VAT tariff promulgated under Circular No. 83/2014/TT-BTC.

Guidance on the declaration of “Quantity” on Customs declaration form and Customs finalization report

In Official Letter No. 54/TCHQ-GSQL dated 07/01/2021, the General Department of Customs (“GDC”) has requested provincial Customs departments to instruct declarants to declare goods quantity on export declaration form in accordance with the provisions of Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC as follows: • Item “Quantity (1)”: Box No. 1: fill in the actual export quantity of each item; Box No. 2: fill in the actual measurement unit used in the transaction. • Item “Quantity (2)”: Box No. 1: fill in the export quantity of each item determined in accordance with the Vietnamese nomenclature of import & export; Box No. 2: fill in the measurement unit determined in accordance with the Vietnamese nomenclature of import & export. The GDC has also noted that the measurement unit used for calculating imported material and exported products on Customs finalization report for exportprocessing/manufacturing models should be the one actually used in production management/transaction term, and declared on item “Quantity (1)” of the Customs finalization form.

New guidance on the declaration of goods being plant-derived products with name and description stipulated under both the nomenclature of medicinal herbs and nomenclature of plant-derived food

This is the new guidance from the GDC in Official Letter No. 122/TCHQ-GSQL dated 12/01/2021. If the import is plant-derived products with name and description stipulated under both the nomenclature of medicinal herbs attached to Circular No. 48/2018/TT-BYT of the Ministry of Health and nomenclature of plant-derived food subjecting to food-safety check issued under Circular No. 15/2018/TT-BNNPTNT of the Ministry of Agriculture, the importer should refer to the usage purpose of these imported products to determine the applicable requirement under relevant specialized management regulation. In detail: • If the import is declared to be used as “medical ingredient”: requirements and procedures mentioned in the Law on Pharmacy and Decree No. 54/2017/ND-CP should be followed.

• If the import is declared to be used as “food” and belongs to the list of medical ingredients which are often used as food attached to Official Letter No. 7415/BYT-YDCT dated 31/12/2020 of the Ministry of Health: the declarant needs to follow requirements and procedures mentioned under the Law on Food Safety and Decree No. 15/2018/NDCP.

• If the import is declared with usage purpose other than the two above-mentioned: the declarant chooses to apply the requirement/procedure set out in one of the two options above, or follows the specific guidance set out for relevant field related to the specific usage purpose, if any. 

Accepting Form D with information about third-country’s invoice on Box No. 7

This is the GDC’s guidance in Official Letter No. 3735/HQHCM-GSQL dated 21/12/2020. Accordingly, indicating number and issuance date of invoice in case of 3rd country invoicing – under the request of C/O issuing authority – would not impact C/O validity.

Accepting re-issued C/O without reference information of the original C/O

This is the GDC’s guidance in Official Letter No. 7658/TCHQ-GSQL dated 03/12/2020. In detail, if the re-issued C/O does not indicate any reference to number and issuance date of the original C/O but the Customs authority can verify the C/O validity on the website of the C/O issuing authority or on the National/ASEAN single window system, and also can confirm the re-issued C/O is for the declared shipment, the re-issued C/O will be accepted.

Some notable guidance on C/O under EVFTA 

 Not accepting Form EUR.1 for the application of EVFTA import duty rate: This is the guidance from the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City under Official Letter No. 3577/HQHCM-GSQL dated 07/12/2020 and Official Letter No. 3654/HQHCM-GSQL dated 14/12/2020. In detail, EU-originating goods imported from EU into Vietnam shall only be eligible to EVFTA duty rate if it is accompanied by self-certifying certificate of origin issued by an exporter with REX code, or by any exporter in case the shipment value is lower than 6,000 euro. If the importer can present only Form EUR.1 in accordance with Circular No. 11/2020/TT-BCT (clause 1a, article 19) without a valid self-certifying certificate of origin as noted above, the shipment would not be eligible to enjoy EVFTA import duty rate.

 No requirement on exporter’s name to be typed on the goods origin declaration statement in the self-certifying certificate of origin issued under EVFTA: This is guidance in Official Letter No. 3497/HQHCM-GSQL issued on 30/11/2020 by the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City.

 Other guidance in Official Letter No. 7735/TCHQ-GSQL dated 08/12/2020 of the GDC:

       Regarding EU-originating goods imported from bonded warehouse into domestic zone as from 01/08/2010, if the importer can present to the Customs with valid certificate of origin (selfcertifying certificate of origin under EVFTA) in accordance with the guidance of Circular No. 38/2018/TT-BTC, the goods shall be eligible to enjoy special-preferential import duty rate under this FTA.

        Valid self-certifying certificate of origin under EVFTA are invoice, delivery note or other commercial documents with sufficient content of the product and having the valid goods origin declaration statement of the exporter. Such commercial documents can be dispatch note, proforma invoice, or packing list, but not transportation documents as bill of lading or airways bill.

 Other guidance in Official Letter No. 7735/TCHQ-GSQL dated 08/12/2020 of the GDC (continued):

 Regarding the hand-writing signature of the exporter on the self-certifying certificate of origin:

     o If the exporter has already registered REX code: The Customs authority must accept selfcertifying certificate of origin without hand-writing signature of the exporter; and must not request the declarant to show the commitment letter of exporter (about the lack of handwriting signature) when they proceed Customs procedure.

     o If the exporter has not yet registered REX code: The Customs authority would only accept self-certifying certificate of origin for shipment with value less than EUR 6,000, and there must be hand-writing signature of the exporter on the certificate.

 The Customs authority must not reject certificate of origin due to the reason of being unable to obtain information about the goods, the company or the expiration date of the REX code.

 Regarding the declaration of originating country on the self-certifying certificate of origin:

     o If the certificate of origin declares the origin as EU/European Union with the name of a particular European country: this does not affect the validity of the certificate of origin.

     o If the certificate of origin only declares the name of a particular European country: The Customs authority would reject this certificate and report to the GDC for further notice to the competent authorities of EU.

Granting duty exemption for imported material serving exportmanufacturing business with certain outsourced process

This proposal of the Ministry of Finance has been approved by the Government in the periodical meeting last November (released in Resolution No. 178/NQ-CP dated 12/12/2020 of the Government). As such, regarding imported material serving exportmanufacturing business which has already been declared (by the importer) as duty exemption at import stage, a part of which is then handed to a 3rd party outsourcing vendor to handle some parts of the manufacturing process, before becoming finished product to be exported to overseas, the Government now requests the Ministry of Finance to instruct Customs authorities to reimburse all the tax having been imposed on the outsourced process, and not collect tax in unsettled cases. Besides, the Ministry of Finance and the Customs authorities are requested to have proper control measures in place to manage the application of this duty-exemption scheme – in order to avoid tax fraud. This guidance must be promptly built into the draft Decree replacing Decree No. 134/2016/ND-CP. 

Applying VAT on the import of outsourced products from EPE to domestic zone, even if 100% materials are supplied by the domestic contract owner

This is the GDC’s guidance to all provincial Customs departments in Official Letter No. 7897/TCHQ-TXNK dated 16/12/2020. In particular, the prevailing regulations allow that, products being outsourced to an EPE under which 100% materials are supplied by the domestic contract owner shall be exempted from import duty – but not import VAT – when being imported back to the domestic zone. The taxable value to calculate import VAT is the processing fee and other adjustments (if any) as mentioned in Circular No. 39/2015/TT-BTC guiding on Customs valuation (clause 17, article 3) and Circular No. 219/2013/TT-BTC guiding the law on VAT (clause 2, article 7). This taxable value does not include the value of input material supplied by the contract owner under the processing contract.

Some guidance for the importation of medicine and medicinal ingredients

 Official Letter No. 3724/GSQL-GQ1 dated 03/12/2020 from GDC: Medicines and medicinal ingredients, which are pharmaceutical substances having been granted the Certificate of registration for circulation in Vietnam, and medicinal ingredients, which are pharmaceutical substances used for medicine production (as included in medicine registration dossier) having been granted the Certificate of registration for circulation in Vietnam, are eligible to be imported without import license. The determination of medicines and medicinal ingredients imported without having to obtain import license must be based on the Certificate of registration for circulation of the medicine/medicinal ingredients issued by the Ministry of Health in Vietnam.

 Official Letter No. 3350/HQHCM-GSQL dated 04/12/2020 from the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City: Under the prevailing regulations, it is required that the customs declarant must submit medicine test certificate with the importer’s seal for each batch of import; there is no provision allowing the use of E-certificate for medicine test so far.

 Official Letter No. 3688/HQHCM-GSQL dated 16/12/2020 from the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City: It is required that the overseas vendor must contract directly with the importer, and the vendor must also be one of the types of establishments as stipulated in clause 91, Article 15 of Decree No. 54/2017/NĐ-CP (as amended and supplemented by clause 48d, Article 5 of Decree No. 155/2018/ND-CP). As such, when carrying out Customs import procedure, the importer must present to the Customs authority with proper documents proving the contractual vendor satisfying all of the above conditions.

No requirement on import license for houseware rubber gloves 

Also in Official Letter No. 3489/HQHCM-GSQL dated on 30/11/2020, the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City has provided guidance on specialized management requirement on imported rubber gloves. As such, pursuant to Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP, rubber gloves being used as normal housewares are allowed to be imported without import license. 

Supervising goods under intellectual property right infringement upon the GDC’s acceptance 

This is the guidance from the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City under Official Letter No. 3494/HQHCM-GSQL dated 30/11/2020 and Official Letter No. 3561/HQHCM-GSQL dated 04/12/2020, regarding the request for temporary suspension of customs formalities for imported goods showing signs of intellectual property rights infringement. According to Article 74 of the Law on Customs, the Customs authority shall only apply and execute customs inspection and supervision measures for goods requiring protection of intellectual property rights for a period of 02 years from the date of accepting the request of the intellectual property rights holder. This period can be extended for another 02 years, but not exceeding the time-limit for protection according to Law on Intellectual property. As such, when the GDC has not yet released any official announcement about accepting the request of the intellectual property rights holder, the local Customs officers shall have no basis to execute any special Customs inspection and supervision measure (check, supervise, temporary suspend processing Customs procedure, etc.) for imported goods showing signs of intellectual property rights infringement.