Posted on 29 Apr 2015
The Ministry of Industry and Trade plans to issue a circular this June showing enterprises how to issue certificates of origin (C/O) for their own goods exported to Laos, Indonesia and the Philippines.
At a seminar in HCMC last week on C/O issuance in accordance with the free trade agreements (FTA) in which Vietnam is a signatory, Le Thi Hong Ngoc, deputy head of the Customs Control and Supervision Division at the General Department of Customs said ASEAN countries have applied this C/O issuing mechanism to two pilot projects.
The first project is applicable to all commercial enterprises, with the participation of Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand since 2010 and 2011. Laos, Indonesia and the Philippines have partaken in the second project applicable to production firms since 2012 and 2013.
Vietnam did not agree to join the mechanism for the second project until last September. The country is now in the final stages of completing procedures and issuing guiding circulars to officially adopt the mechanism.
Vuong Duc Anh from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Export-Import Department said the guiding circular is being drafted and will be issued in June with effect 45 days after that. The pilot projects will end when ASEAN countries agree on a common mechanism for exporters to issue their own C/Os, possibly next year.
Ngoc said when the pilot project is officially carried out in Vietnam, producers wanting to join will have to register with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and meet requirements in terms of production scale, stable export performance and understanding of goods origin.
Participating firms will be provided with a code and required to certify their goods origins in line with the origin requirements for FTAs to enjoy incentives. Handwritten autographs are also a must to help management agencies detect fake ones, according to Ngoc.
After signing contracts and providing goods origins, enterprises will have to submit them to importers to present to the authorities of importing countries. Production and export enterprises must be responsible for information about their goods origin.
Ngoc said exporters’ issuance of C/Os helps save time and cost but they will be fined if they provide inaccurate origin or do not fully understand the rules of origin.
Many ASEAN enterprises have taken part in the two pilot projects, including 133 in Malaysia, 114 in Thailand, 54 in Singapore, ten in Brunei, ten in Indonesia, three in the Philippines and two in Laos.
Among the FTAs Vietnam is negotiating, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Vietnam-EU FTA and the Vietnam-EFTA FTA allow exporters to issue C/O while the FTA between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union of Russian, Belarus and Kazakhstan does not.
Such C/O issuing mechanism will be discussed in the Vietnam-South Korea FTA after this agreement takes effect.
