Customs, USAID join hand to boost trade facilitation

VGP – A working session was held on August 27 between the General Department of Customs, representatives of some ministries, agencies and professionals of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to boost the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Program (TFP).

August 28, 2019 2:23 PM GMT+7

The five-year, US$21.7 million USAID Trade Facilitation Program aims to support the Government of Viet Nam to adopt and implement a risk management approach to customs and specialized inspection agencies, which will strengthen the implementation of the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement of which both Viet Nam and the United States are members.

The USAID Trade Facilitation Program will be implemented until 2023 and will support the standardization of policies and procedures for export and import, strengthen national and provincial coordination, and build the capacity of provincial customs officers. This will help Viet Nam develop a more attractive and predictable trade and investment climate for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises as well as international traders and investors.

Speaking at the event, representative of the USAID expected that the realization of the TFP will gain more achievements in harmonizing and simplifying policies and procedures (for exports and imports), the coordination works between the central and local levels on trade facilitation policy for export items.

In 2015, 13 ministries and agencies issued a list of 82,698 items under specialized inspection. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development took the lead with 65,185 items, making up 79%, followed by the Ministry of Health (5,730), the Ministry of Industry and Trade (5,096), the Ministry of Science and Technology (3,434), the Ministry of Transport (1,433) and the Ministry of Information and Communications (1,034).

As of April 2019, the number of commodities under specialized inspection was only 70,087, of which 7,623 under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

On September 26, 2018, the PM signed Decision No. 1254/QĐ-TTg approving the plan of action for promotion of national single-window system, ASEAN single-window system, reform of specialized inspections over imports and exports and trade facilitation for the period of 2018 - 2020. Accordingly, the proportion of imported products under specialized inspection will be reduced by 10% by 2020.

By Thuy Dung