Guidance Regarding Documents Certifying Origin in CPTPP Agreement

The General Department of Customs instructed provincial/municipal customs departments in declaring reference numbers of CPTPP certificates of origin on import customs declarations. Accordingly, Article 5 of Circular 38/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20th, 2018 of the Ministry of Finance on indentifying the origin of export and import goods (amended and supplemented in Circular 62/2019/TT-BTC) stipulates that the declarant declares the reference number and date of issuing certificates of origin of goods on the customs declaration.

However, Point 3, Clause 4, Article 1 of Circular 62/2019/TT-BTC guiding the minimum requirements for documents certifying the origin of goods under CPTPP form does not specify the reference number as mandatory information on documents certifying the origin of goods.

Accordingly, the General Department of Customs guides provincial/municipal customs departments as follows: In case a customs declarant submits documents certifying the origin of goods in CPTPP form with a reference number, they need to guide the declarant to comply with Article 5 of Circular 38/2018/TT-BTC.

In case a customs declarant submits the certificate of origin in CPTPP form without a reference number, they need to guide the declarant to declare "none" on the import customs declaration.

By Le Hien, Vietnam Business Forum