On July 17, 2018 General Department of Customs issued Document No.4202/TCHQ-PC to guide on management of imported scraps from aboard into Vietnam.
Accordingly, Document No.4202/TCHQ-PC guiding the disposal of commodities that are used scraps, used goods is characterized as follows:
1. The Customs Department reviews and informs enterprises / shipping companies/ shipping agent to work together to identify the owner, classification by type, quantity, volume, composition, nature, time and place of storage.
2. Collecting, analyzing information, investigating, verifying, actively checking the absence of customs declarers with the goods have signs of violation and show signs of taking advantage of the import scraps materials in order to commit acts of smuggling or illegally transporting goods across borders.
3. Base on the result of above activities, the backlog of goods is handled as follows:
a) Goods are waste, hazardous waste
– In cases that are identified as material evidences of criminal cases, they shall be handled according to the provisions of the criminal procedure legislation:
– In cases that determined not to be material evidences of criminal cases, they shall be administratively sanctioned according to regulations and must be taken out of the Vietnamese territory.
b) Goods are scrap material:
– Goods consignees are enterprises that have Certificate of eligibility for environmental protection in importing scrap materials for production materials: To urge the consignees to carry out the customs procedures according to regulations;
– Goods consignees are enterprises that do not have Certificate of eligibility for environmental protection in importing scraps materials for production materials: Request the shipping company/shipping agent to inform the consignee of the ineligibility to carry out the import procedures and take them out of the Vietnamese territory.
– In cases there are no national technical standards on environment; Request the shipping company/shipping agent to inform the consignee that the customs office has no basis to consider the customs clearance and must remove from the territory of Vietnam.
4. Disposal of goods which are backlog scrap material as follows:
– With commodities that are backlog scrap material at the port but not yet and being handle, the process shall be conduct in accordance with steps 1, 2 and 3 as above.
– With commodities that are backlog scrap material at the port which completed the handling, they shall be reported to the General Department of Customs (via the Customs Supervision and Management Department) contents, results of processing each specific shipment.
The guidance in Document No.4202/TCHQ-PC is considered to be effective and timely guidance of the General Department of Customs in the current context, when importing and trading scrap materials have a tendency to increase sharply and complicatedly, there are many risks of polluting the environment and causing public annoyance.