Customs procedures still headache for firms
Speaking at a meeting with business executives held by the General Department of Customs and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Hanoi, the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association’s vice chairwoman Dang Phuong Dung said textile firms normally import quarantined feather but when shipments arrive in Vietnam, the item would be quarantined again.
Importers have to wait five to seven days for getting a quarantine certificate from the Animal Health Department after they submit their applications. Then they have to register for quarantine and fumigation at border gates and this progress lasts one to two days. Post-fumigation results must be sent to science academies for verification.
Dung calculated that it would take up to 20 days for the imported product to go through the customs. Enterprises have to pay storage fees which amount to dozens of millions of dong.
Au Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Customs Control and Supervision Department, said customs procedures have been streamlined. Since August 15, goods in more than half of more than five million declaration forms has been allowed to go through the green channel and 8.34% through the red channel.
However, Dung said goods of many enterprises had been diverted to the red channel though these goods were subject to customs clearance at the green channel.
Nguyen Hoai Nam, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said a few seafood enterprises are permitted to have their products cleared at the green channel.
The General Department of Customs said it has proposed removing 19 procedures and simplifying 46 others. Besides, the agency has reduced unnecessary customs documents and the time for application checks and goods inspections.
Pham Thanh Binh, a consultant for the GIG project, said improved customs procedures could not be measured precisely.
A study funded by GIG showed shipments subject to specialized inspections at customs offices in HCMC, Hanoi, Haiphong and Binh Duong made up 30-35% of total import shipments.
Quarantine durations often range from 24 hours to 48 hours while those for some products like dairy products and beverages take up to 168-240 hours. In addition, popular quality inspections take 168 hours while products like milk, food and food containers should be 240 hours.
Inspections of functional foods require 360-400 hours compared to the average food inspection duration of 168 hours.
When asked to compare goods inspections this year with those before, 63.2% of respondents said quarantine procedures were not simpler or even more complicated and 78.6% said the quarantine duration was not faster or even was slower.
Besides, the quality inspection duration was not shortened or even longer as complained by 90.9% of respondents in the survey. In terms of food safety inspection, 81.8% said the duration was not faster or even was slower before 2015.
