Customs Authorities Answer Questions from Japanese Businesses

The General Department of Customs (GDC) recently held a dialogue conference with the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam (JCCI). This was a regular dialogue conference to improve customs regulations. At the same time, professional agencies and local customs authorities had the opportunity to exchange and answer questions from Japanese enterprises in Vietnam.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Kazuyoshi Mizuno, Head of JCCI Customs Department, said that seven JCCI member companies attended this dialogue. He hoped that at the dialogue the GDC answered and addressed difficulties and problems faced by Japanese companies to make their customs clearance processes easier.

At the meeting, central and local customs authorities received and answered 18 questions raised by the Japanese business community.

The raised questions involved policies for commodities entitled to preferential C/O; customs procedures for on-spot exports and imports; instructions for attendance to the pilot program that supports and encourages enterprises to voluntarily comply with customs laws; and assigned flowing of goods. For example, for the pilot program that supports and encourages enterprises to voluntarily comply with customs laws, enterprises that want to join the program need to meet such conditions as having full information as prescribed in Circular 81/2019/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance; doing import and export for more than one year and having an invitation letter from customs authorities, a representative from the GDC Risk Management Department said.

“In this regard, companies need to discuss with customs offices about places to carry out procedures, and customs authorities will then consider the above conditions to gauge their eligibility for the program,” said the representative.

In reply to the question from Toyota Tsusho Vietnam Co., Ltd on why its declaration forms were classified into red flows, Hai Phong Customs Department explained that the company’s customs declarations were in the name of a shipping company. Compliance management and risk assessment procedures found that this company was an authorized importer for many different companies.

According to records on the monitoring system, this company had three violated declarations due to incorrectly declared quantity, origin and type of goods. Most recently, in February 2023, its violations were detected by the Customs Office of Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks under Hai Phong Customs Department and were imposed an administrative sanction for its violations.

“Currently, Hai Phong Customs Department is carrying out a compliance assessment and risk assessment for this shipping company. For that reason, declarations filed by it have been recently assigned into the red flow. Hai Phong Customs Department requested Toyota Tsusho Vietnam Co., Ltd and its entrustment company to review declaration processes and assess factors that affect their compliance for a better performance to have a better flow,” the representative of Hai Phong Customs Department emphasized.

By Hien Le, Vietnam Business Forum