GDC, WB Cooperate in WTO Trade Facilitation

The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) was adopted by member states at the 9^th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia. With the desire to accelerate the implementation of TFA commitments, the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDC) under the Ministry of Finance as a lead negotiator has prepared necessary procedures to submit to the lawmaking National Association for TFA approval. On November 26, 2015, the National Assembly of Vietnam ratified the agreement with the Resolution No. 108/QH13. Accordingly, the Government will continue to assign the Ministry of Finance - the General Department of Customs to coordinate in implementation of TFA. TFA will take effect if two-thirds of its member countries (or 108 member states) approved. Up to now, 63 members passed TFA.

 

With efforts to carry out TFA commitments, GDC has attained many important and significant achievements in customs reform and modernisation, including the enactment of the Amended Customs Law of 2014, the deployment of VNACCS/VCIS automatic customs clearance system, the initial deployment of fast-track National Single Window Mechanism connected with nine ministries involved in specialised export and import management and connected with ASEAN Single Window (connected with Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand) and the adoption of modern international customs standards. GDC also collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Health to execute the Prime Minister’s Decision 2026/QD-TTg dated November 17, 2015 on the scheme of specialised management to reduce procedural service time to 3-5 days.

 

By signing the declaration on this cooperation, the World Bank (WB) is committed to supporting GDC to deploy TF Agreement by such activities as building a trade information portal for Vietnam according to Articles 1 and 2 of the agreement; assessing the readiness of TFA implementation as committed by relevant ministries; establishing the National Committee on Trade Facilitation as specified in Article 23 to help Vietnam fulfil TFA obligations.