Official Letter No. 2643/TCHQ-GSQL dated 10 June 2024 of the General Department of Customs on the identification of foreign traders who are not present in Vietnam.
The written proposal to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to guide the composition of dossiers, documents, methods, and orders of identification and inspection of foreign traders with or without presence in Vietnam so that the Customs Authority has a basis for handling on-the-spot import and export procedures as prescribed at Point c, Clause 1, Article 35 of Decree No. 08/2015/ ND-CP.
Specifically, according to Point c, Clause 1, Article 35 of Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP, the Customs Authority must determine that the foreign trader meets the condition of “not having a presence in Vietnam” to be in the case of on-the-spot import and export. In case a foreign trader has a “presence in Vietnam” such as having a representative office, branch, investment in the establishment of an economic organization; investment in capital contribution, purchase of shares, purchase of contributed capital; implementation of investment projects; investment in the form of BCC contracts; new forms of investment and types of economic organizations (as prescribed by the Government) are not subject to on-the-spot import and export.
– However, according to the General Department of Customs, the current legal documents on commerce and foreign trade (Clause 5, Article 3 of the Law on Foreign Trade Management No. 05/2017/QH14 and Clause 2, Article 3 of Decree No. 90/2017/ND-CP) only stipulate the concept of foreign traders not having a presence in Vietnam without guidance on the composition of the dossiers, documents, methods, and procedures for identification, inspection and also do not stipulate that the competent agency is responsible for guiding this content, leading to difficulties for the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Customs) in guiding the implementation of customs procedures.