/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • • / 0 Comments

SPECIALIZED INSPECTION OF THE AGRICULTURE TO BE TOO BROAD, AND LACK THE HS CODES

VCN- The specialized management and inspection of the agriculture still exist mostly in quarantine, food safety inspection, and quality control.

 
The Customs officers in the Hai Phong port Region II are inspecting the import and export goods. Photo: Q.Hung.

List of goods without the HS code

According to the statistics of the General Department of Customs in the field of plant quarantine, in 2016, there were more than 400,000 import and export declarations belong to quarantine. Of which, 49 declarations were found to be in violation, accounting for 0.01% of the total number of declarations belong to be examined.

According to the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Customs) – the standing agency implementing the national single window mechanism and the specialized inspection, for food safety inspection of the import and export goods the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued the list of goods subject to food safety inspection prior to the customs clearance with the HS code in Decision No. 4069/QD-BNN-QLCL dated August 14th, 2015. However, some goods groups do not still detail their names and HS codes. Specifically, raw milk, products containing honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly, tools, materials, and a package of food… List of goods subject to inspection prior to the customs clearance is also very broad.

Regarding quarantine, the list of goods subject to quarantine of animals and the list of goods subject to quarantine of aquatic products prior to the customs clearance was issued in accordance with Circular No. 25/2016/TT-BNNPTNT. However, these lists have not detailed the names and have not had the HS codes, so, this leads to a very wide range of quarantine goods. Examples: Meat products, dairy products…

For quality control, the list of goods group 2 under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is stipulated in Circular 50/2009/ TT-BNNPTNT dated 18th August 2009 and Circular 50/2010/TT-BNNPTNT dated 30th August 2010. However, the list of goods subject to quality inspection prior to the customs clearance is too large, cover almost the goods under the management of this Ministry.

In addition, the list has not detailed the name of the goods and not attached the HS code under the list of the export-import goods. Many goods must be inspected, but there have not stipulated the inspection procedures, and progress, the technical standards or regulations. This makes difficult for both the companies and the Customs to enforce.

Overlap in safety inspection and quarantine

In addition to the list of goods subject to inspection is too large, there are many items on the list of goods subject to quarantine and on the list of goods subject to food safety.

Specifically, yogurt, milk powder, cheese, wheat flour… have to be quarantined according to regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which is subject to food safety inspection as regulated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Many items have been both quarantined and inspected the food safety by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, such as meat and meat products, milk, dairy products, food of plant origin that has not been processed deeply…

To overcome this situation, the Ministry of Finance requests the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with the specialized management Ministries (the Health Ministry and the Industry and Trade Ministry) to review the list of goods belong to quarantine and the list of goods belong to food safety inspection prior to the customs clearance in the direction: Apply only one form of pre-clearance inspection, reduce the list of goods subject to special inspection for the goods that have been processed deeply.

In case of high-risk items, 2 types of inspection must be carried out, it needs to unify one clue unit/agency. Avoiding that the enterprises have to go to two agencies to test for the same import goods

For the inadequacies that the list of goods subject to food safety inspection, quarantine and quality control is too wide, the Ministry of Finance said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should issue a list of goods subject to food safety inspection soon, according to the regulation, 2 lists of goods have to been specified: The goods subject to pre-customs clearance (high risk) and the goods belong to inspection prior to transportation and consumption (low risk). With the list of goods subject to pre-customs clearance, it is necessary to issue the goods names in detail and the HS codes fully.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance proposes to change fundamentally the management and inspection methods of food safety for the import goods in the direction of management based on assessing the risk level of the export-import goods and legal compliance level of the enterprises, applying the AEO mode. Transfer the time of inspection to the post-clearance inspection, except for cases where the import goods would be a high risk of food safety. At the same time, apply widely the international practice, promote the mutual recognition agreement.

The Ministry of Finance proposes that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development take the lead in studying and recommending amendments and supplements to the regulations on the specialized management and inspection for the import-export goods in the Law on Plant Protection and Quarantine, the Law on Animal Health under the application of risk management method based on the risk level of goods and the legal compliance level of enterprises.

In Decision 2026/QD-TTg, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was tasked to amend and supplement 49 legal documents on the specialized management and inspection for the import and export goods. According to the review of the Ministry of Finance by August 20th, 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development amended and supplemented 41/49 documents. However, two documents have been issued to replace the old ones but failed to meet the requirements (list of goods without the HS code), in particular: Circular No. 25/2016/TT-BNNPTNT issued the list of aquatic products subject to quarantine in replacement of Decision 45/2006/QD-BNN; Circular 26/2016/TT-BNNPTNT promulgated the list of aquatic products subject to quarantine in replacement of Circular No. 32/2012/TT-BNNPTNT. At present, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is amending the 8 remaining documents, including 6 legal documents and 2 lists of goods.

By Ngoc Linh/ Binh Minh

Source: http://customsnews.vn/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • • • • • / 0 Comments

NO OVERLAPPING SPECIALIZED INSPECTIONS FOR THE SAME COMMODITY

VCN- The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue has assigned the relevant ministries to coordinate with competent agencies to review and unify the list of goods subject to specialized inspections towards non-overlapping.

no overlapping specialized inspections for the same commodity
Specialized inspections account for 70% of the Customs clearance time.

Specifically, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue has assigned the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, according to their assigned functions and tasks, to coordinate with relevant agencies to unify the list goods subject to specialized inspections towards non-overlapping for the same commodity which must be inspected by various agencies.

The Deputy Prime Minister also assigned the relevant specialized management ministries to expeditiously promulgate a list of exported and imported goods subject to specialized inspections at the stage of Customs clearance in accordance with Government’s Resolution No. 19/2017 / NQ-CP of 6th February 2017.

Also, these ministries shall coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice to review and clarify the legal grounds and requirements of each type of specialized inspections. In the case where different name of types of records have similar contents, the amendment and adjustment shall be made towards unifying the use of records to create favourable conditions for enterprises.

The Deputy Prime Minister has asked relevant ministries and agencies to report to the Prime Minister on the results of the above activities in June 2017.

Earlier, in order to unify the appropriate specialized inspections towards reducing the types of papers and certificates, but still ensure strict control and adequate criteria and requirements on quality and safety, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue has assigned the Ministry of Finance to review imported and exported commodities subject to many procedures at the same time and many related inspection documents.

According to the Ministry of Finance, there are many legal documents on specialized inspections but there are overlaps in the management and specialized inspections.

A commodity is subject to many forms of management

The review has shown that many imported items must also be subject to many forms of management and inspections by many ministries. For example, yogurt and cheese products must be subject to the specialized management and inspections of two ministries, for quarantine and food safety. Or plant varieties, bricks, stones and glass which must be checked for quality and certificates of conformity for medical equipment, drugs, raw materials for medicine production … have just applied for import license and quality inspection.

Even, fertilizer must be subject to 3 types of management / inspection, including automatic import license, quality control and technical certification.

In addition, there are cases where one item is subject to many forms of management of the same specialized management ministry. For example, silkworms are subject to quarantine, quality control and food safety by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The medicines and raw materials for the manufacture of medicines and medical equipment have just applied for import permits and have to check the quality of the Ministry of Health. Boilers are subject to test standards, import conditions, and quality / safety checks. This item is also subject to the same form of management / inspection of two specialized management ministries, in which the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs jointly inspect quality and the Ministry of Industry and Trade inspects energy efficiency.

The Ministry of Finance said that the application of many different regimes and management modes to an exported or imported item not only makes it difficult for enterprises to reduce competitiveness but it also loses business opportunities of the business; increases the administrative procedures, extends the clearance time, increases the payroll of the management agency, wastes the State budget, sometimes causing difficulties for the State management agencies in the Customs clearance process.

The management is inconsistent

The cause of the overlapping specialized inspections which was indicated by the Ministry of Finance was that relevant ministries did not agree on the management. The list of goods subject to specialized inspections is too wide, not specifying goods’ names, without HS codes. Many documents have been promulgated for a long time, no longer fitting with reality but they have not been abolished.

The regime of management and inspections for imported and exported goods of relevant ministries are inconsistent (in terms of procedures, methods of implementation), leading to various types of documents issued by specialized management ministries. It is not clear which documents are permitted, certificate of conditions for imported and exported goods, automatic license, standard conformity certification and chemical declaration.

According to the Government’s Resolution No. 19/2017 / NQ-CP, in the first quarter of 2017, the ministries must promulgate a list of imports and exports subject to specialized inspection at the stage of Customs clearance, simplifying procedures and shortening inspection time; reviewing and amending the regulations on the acceptance of technical regulation conformity for imported goods towards abolition or simplification of procedures. There is no cases of receiveing regulation conformity announcement for products and goods which do not have national standards.

However, the Ministry of Finance said that there had been no ministries issuing a list of goods towards shortening goods subject to specialized inspections at the stage of Customs clearance.

By Chinhphu.vn/ Hoang Anh

Source: http://customsnews.vn/