Decision 38/QD-TTg in 2021 approving the Project on Reforming the model of quality inspection and food safety inspection for imported goods issued by the Prime Minister

Số hiệu	38/QĐ-TTg
Loại văn bản	Quyết định
Cơ quan	Thủ tướng Chính phủ
Ngày ban hành	12/01/2021
Người ký	Phạm Bình Minh
Ngày hiệu lực	12/01/2021
Tình trạng	Còn hiệu lực

Ngày ban hành:12/01/2021Tình trạng:Còn hiệu lực

THE PRIME MINISTER --------	THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM Independence-Freedom-Happiness -----------------
No.: 38/QD-TTg	Hanoi, January 12, 2021

DECISION

APPROVING PROJECT ON REFORM OF QUALITY AND FOOD SAFETY INSPECTION MODEL FOR IMPORTED GOODS

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Government Organization dated June 19, 2015 and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Government Organization and the Law on Local Government Organization dated November 22, 2019;

Pursuant to the Resolution No. 19/NQ-CP in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 on solutions for improving business environment and enhancing national competitiveness;

Pursuant to the Government’s Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP dated January 01, 2019 on main tasks and solutions for implementing the Social - economic development plan and the State budget estimate in 2019;

Pursuant to the Resolution No. 02/NQ-CP dated January 01, 2020 on main tasks and solutions for improving business environment and enhancing national competitiveness in 2020;

Pursuant to the Resolution No. 99/NQ-CP dated November 13, 2019 on the Government’s Regular Meeting in October, 2019;

At the request of the Minister of Finance,

HEREBY DECIDES:

Article 1. The Project on “Reform of quality and food safety inspection model for imported goods” (hereinafter referred to as “Project”) is hereby given approval and consists of the following primary contents:

1. Scope and entities of the Project

a) Scope

This Project applies to the quality and food safety inspection of imported goods at border checkpoints, except the following goods:

- Goods subject to inspection and management in the fields of security, national defense, quarantine, culture, etc.;

- Goods subject to both quarantine and other specialized inspection under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development;

- Goods on the List of goods subject to state quality inspection of imported goods after customs clearance, or goods subject to state quality inspection which, as regulated by the supervisory ministry, is performed by consideration of the importer’s declaration of conformity according to: (i) conformity self-assessment results; (ii) certification/inspection results given by the certification/inspection body registered or accredited in accordance with regulations of law (methods 2a, 2b prescribed in Clause 3 Article 1 of the Government’s Decree No. 74/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018 amending Clause 2 Article 7 of the Government’s Decree No. 132/2008/ND-CP dated December 31, 2008 providing guidelines for the Law on quality of goods and products).

With regard to imported goods on the List of goods subject to state quality inspection of imported goods after customs clearance, importers are entitled to apply either quality inspection procedures under the new model in the Project or post-clearance inspection.

b) Regulated entities

- Supervisory ministries that are assigned to perform state management of quality of goods and products, and safety of foods.

- Customs authorities.

- Importers of goods subject to quality and food safety inspection.

- Conformity assessment bodies.

- Customs brokerage agents.

- Other entities that have rights and obligations involved in the import of goods subject to quality and food safety inspection.

2. Objectives and rules of the Project

a) Objectives

- General objectives: The Project will facilitate enterprises; protect legitimate rights and benefits of traders and consumers; improve efficiency of quality and food safety inspection of imported goods.

- Specific objectives:

+ Carry out a comprehensive reform of regulations on quality and food safety inspection of imported goods towards promotion of application of information technology, risk management, simplification of procedures for quality and food safety inspection of imported goods, and reduction of contact points between enterprises, agencies and organizations;

+ Reduce costs and time for clearance of imported goods;

+ Create environment and conditions necessary for private sector involvement in quality and food safety inspection; properly protect the domestic production, environmental protection, community interests and health;

+ Improve effectiveness and efficiency of quality and food safety inspection of imported goods with the aims of ensuring strict and lawful management of imported goods and contributing to the guarantee of the national and economic security;

+ Re-organize the quality and food safety inspection model for imported goods towards simplification, efficiency and reasonable, clear and transparent assignment of tasks between parties (including supervisory ministries, customs authorities and designated conformity assessment bodies).

b) Rules

- Strictly comply with regulations of the Law on customs, the Law on quality of goods and products, the Law on food safety, the Law on technical regulations and standards, the Law on animal husbandry, the Law on crop production, the Law on fisheries, and the Law on foreign trade management.

- Comply with the Government’s and the Prime Minister’s directions and orientations given in the past years on comprehensive reform of specialized management and inspection of imported goods; actual reform of specialized inspection of imported goods in order to facilitate enterprises while ensuring the efficiency of state management performed by supervisory ministries of quality of imported goods, protecting people life and health, and protecting environment, economic and national security.

- Inherit effectively implemented regulations of Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP dated February 02, 2018, Decree No. 74/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018, Decree No. 85/2019/ND-CP dated November 14, 2019, and Decree No. 17/2020/ND-CP dated February 05, 2020, and consistently apply them to goods subject to quality and food safety inspection.

- Enhance the efficiency of state management by supervisory ministries through intensifying connection and sharing of information between state regulatory authorities.

- Take the full advantage of existing IT systems for simplifying and modernizing inspection procedures, and ensuring information transparency.

- Ensure adequate and effective application of advanced inspection methods such as origin tracing and risk management in conformity with international practices, international conventions/agreements to which Vietnam is a signatory.

3. Reform contents of the Project

a) Reform 1: Assign customs authorities to play leading roles in quality and food safety inspection of imported goods

Customs authorities play the leading roles in quality and food safety inspection of imported goods at border checkpoints. To be specific:

- Receive applications for quality and food safety inspection of imported goods;

- Decide inspection methods (tightened inspection, normal inspection or reduced inspection);

- Check received applications;

- If samples are required to serve conformity certification/inspection, carry out conformity certification/inspection at certification/inspection bodies or units of customs authorities designated by supervisory ministries at the request of customs declarants. Units of customs authorities may carry out conformity certification/inspection when they have organizational structure and capacity meeting national/international standards for conformity certification bodies, are accredited according to the Law on technical regulations and standards, and designated by supervisory ministries.

- When goods fail to meet quality and food safety requirements, customs authorities cease to grant clearance and notify relevant agencies and organizations to cooperate in taking actions against such goods in accordance with regulations of law.

Quality and food safety inspection results given by customs authorities are used as the basis for declarants to follow customs procedures. If disagreeing with quality and food safety inspection results given by customs authorities, declarants may make complaints or file lawsuits in accordance with regulations of law.

b) Reform 2: Uniformly apply all of 3 methods for both quality and food safety inspections in order to decrease the number of import shipments subject to inspection

- Uniformly apply all of 3 methods for quality and food safety inspections in order to decrease the number of import shipments subject to inspection. To be specific:

+ Tightened inspection means the combination of documentation examination and sampling for certification, inspection and testing;

+ Normal inspection means the inspection of an application for quality and food safety inspection;

+ Reduced inspection means the random inspection of documents of not exceeding 5% of total import shipments subject to the reduced inspection in the previous year.

- Conversion of inspection method: If goods are satisfactory after at least 03 consecutive tightened inspections, normal inspection may be applied. The reduced inspection shall be applied after goods are satisfactory after at least 03 consecutive normal inspections. Enterprises must not submit the written request for application of reduced inspection, the IT system and inspecting authority shall automatically determine goods subject to reduced or exempted inspection. The application and conversion of inspection methods shall depend on the level of risks and the possibility to cause unsafe situations by imported goods (e.g. goods with high level of risks such as explosives, veterinary drugs, etc. must bear tightened inspection to ensure quality of goods).

The Ministry of Finance shall reach an agreement with supervisory ministries on determination of specific goods requiring special control for properly applying and converting inspection methods during the formulation of Decree providing detailed regulations on inspection procedures.

c) Reform 3: Simplifying quality and food safety inspection procedures for imported goods

- Customs authorities shall carry out procedures for import of goods, and quality and food safety inspection at the same time. Enterprises shall follow these procedures with the sole contact points that are customs authorities.

- Imported goods are classified into different inspection procedures based on inspection methods towards simplification by means of applying information technology.

- Goods eligible for exempted or reduced inspection shall be automatically determined by the system. Enterprises are not required to apply for exemption or reduction of inspection.

- Reduce procedures and time for clearance of imported goods (10-step procedures for quality inspection are reduced by 3 steps; 5-step procedures for food safety inspection are reduced by 2 steps).

d) Reform 4: Carry out commodity-specific inspection in order to decrease the number of shipments subject to inspection

Apply inspection methods, and convert from the tightened inspection into normal inspection and from normal inspection into reduced inspection for the like goods irrespective of their importers for reducing certain unnecessary inspection steps and inspection percentage of the same product. Importers are responsible for their import shipments and will face penalties as prescribed for unsatisfactory goods.

dd) Reform 5: Fully and substantially apply the principles of management risks arising from quality and food safety inspections of imported goods in order to ensure the roles of state management and improve enterprises’ compliance

Fully and substantially apply the principles of management of risks arising from quality and food safety inspections of imported goods, including:

- Assess foreign exporters and manufacturers according to selection criteria;

- Assess the compliance with law by enterprises;

- Compile the List of goods susceptible to risks in each line management field;

- Supervisory ministries shall cooperate to provide for customs authorities with risk-related information for applying risk manage “integrated” with quality and food safety inspection;

- Customs authorities shall carry out quality and food safety inspections if detecting any signs of violation or at random (but not exceeding 5%) for assessing declarants’ compliance with law.

e) Reform 6: Add more cases of exemption from quality and food safety inspection requirements

Consistently apply cases of exemption from quality and food safety inspection requirements on the basis of consolidating cases of inspection exemption in Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP, Decree No. 74/2018/ND-CP and Decree No. 85/2019/ND-CP; add new cases of inspection exemption in conformity with actual conditions; recognize, accredit goods which have been inspected at source, goods manufactured by adopting advanced technologies and originating from countries/territories in which goods meet high quality standards. Cases where the quality and food safety inspections are exempted:

(1) Personal belongings of entities within tax-free allowance; gifts within tax-free allowance imported in accordance with regulations of the Law on taxation;

(2) Goods imported within tax-free quantity as prescribed by law to serve working and daily activities of foreign entities granted diplomatic immunity;

(3) Goods in transit, transshipped, temporarily imported or exported, or sent to bonded warehouses for exporting;

(4) Samples for advertising purpose only; samples serving testing or research whose import quantity is appropriate for such testing or research purpose with entities' certification;

(5) Temporarily imported goods for displaying at a trade fair or exhibition;

(6) Temporarily imported goods for selling at duty-free shops;

(7) Goods exchanged by border residents within tax-free allowance;

(8) Goods imported through postal or express delivery services whose customs values are eligible for tax exemption in accordance with regulations of the Law on taxation;

(9) Goods imported on the spot;

(10) Goods imported for repair or recycling;

(11) Goods imported to serve national defense and security purposes;

(12) Goods granted certificate of registered product declaration (with respect to goods subject to food safety inspection);

(13) Products, materials or components imported for production or processing of exported goods;

(14) Products, materials or components imported to directly serve importers’ production;

(15) LCL goods imported for warranty or replacement; imported goods which are parts of an integrated equipment/line;

(16) Goods imported from manufacturers whose goods have been inspected by regulatory authorities of Vietnam at source as announced by supervisory ministries in each period;

(17) Goods which are manufactured by adopting advanced technologies and originating from countries/territories in which goods meet high quality standards according to quality marks (e.g. goods labeled with CE, KC, FDA...) as announced by supervisory ministries in each period;

(18) Goods imported to serve emergency demands according to the Government’s or Prime Minister’s directives;

(19) Other imported goods as prescribed by specialized laws (if any).

g) Reform 7: Apply information technology systems to put new inspection model into use

- Inherit designs of data processing functions of specialized processing systems, and change data flows from the National single-window portal to customs clearance systems and specialized systems for sharing existing information and other information from customs authorities to serve the performance of state management by supervisory ministries.

- Upgrade the National single-window portal, automatic customs clearance system and risk management system for adding new functions (Assist enterprises in determining goods subject to specialized inspections; assist enterprises in declaring national regulations/standards applicable to goods; connect and share documents/data to relevant parties; assign lanes for specialized inspections in combination with customs inspection; provide instructions for enterprises to follow specialized inspections in combination with customs inspection; take, deliver and manage samples, etc.).

4. Contents of the new quality and food safety inspection model for imported goods

Quality and food safety inspections for imported goods under the new model shall be carried out at supervisory ministries or customs authorities according to the selection of organizations and enterprises. If quality and food safety inspections are carried out at the customs authorities, the customs authorities shall carry out customs procedures and quality and food safety inspection procedures at the same time.

a) New quality inspection model

- Inspection methods:

Imported goods subject to quality inspection shall be inspected by adopting 03 inspection methods as follows:

+ Tightened inspection: Tightened inspection shall be carried out in one of the following cases:

(i) Goods are not yet granted conformity certification;

(ii) Goods do not meet imported requirements in the previous inspection;

(iii) Goods do not meet requirements in inspections (if any);

(iv) Goods are given warning by supervisory ministries, provincial People’s Committees or foreign competent authorities or manufacturers.

+ Normal inspection: Normal inspection shall be carried out in one of the following cases:

(i) Goods have been granted conformity certification;

(ii) Goods meet import requirements in 03 consecutive tightened inspections within the last 12 months.

+ Reduced inspection: Reduced inspection shall be applied to goods which meet import requirements in 03 consecutive normal inspections within the last 12 months.

Application and conversion of inspection methods (from tightened inspection to normal inspection, and from normal inspection to reduced inspection) shall be applied to the like goods irrespective of importers. Conversion of inspection methods shall be applied for a given period.

- Inspecting authorities:

Quality inspections of imported goods which are subject to quality inspection shall be carried out at supervisory ministries and customs authorities. To be specific:

+ Supervisory ministries shall carry out quality inspections of imported goods which are subject to tightened inspection and normal inspection. To be specific:

(i) With regard to imported goods subject to tightened inspection, supervisory ministries shall carry out the quality inspection according to the following procedures:

(1) Receive the application for quality inspection;

(2) Request the certification/inspection body or unit of the customs authority designated by the supervisory ministry to carry out certification/inspection (this agency/unit is selected and announced by the supervisory ministry);

(3) Examine the conformity certification/inspection results;

(4) Issue the notice of quality inspection results;

(5) Transfer quality inspection results to the customs authority for granting clearance.

(ii) With regard to imported goods subject to normal inspection, supervisory ministries shall carry out the quality inspection according to the following procedures:

(1) Receive the application for quality inspection;

(2) Examine the conformity certification/inspection results;

(3) Issue the notice of quality inspection results;

(4) Transfer quality inspection results to the customs authority for granting clearance.

+ Customs authorities shall carry out quality inspections of imported goods which are subject to tightened inspection, normal inspection and reduced inspection. To be specific:

(i) With regard to imported goods subject to tightened inspection, customs authorities shall carry out the quality inspection according to the following procedures:

(1) Receive the application for quality inspection which is enclosed with customs dossier;

(3) Examine the conformity certification/inspection results;

(4) Issue the notice of quality inspection results and grant clearance.

(ii) With regard to imported goods subject to normal inspection, customs authorities shall carry out the quality inspection according to the following procedures:

(1) Receive the application for quality inspection which is enclosed with customs dossier;

(2) Examine the conformity certification/inspection results;

(3) Issue the notice of quality inspection results and grant clearance.

(iii) With regard to imported goods subject to reduced inspection, customs authorities shall carry out the quality inspection according to the following procedures:

(1) Receive the application for quality inspection which is enclosed with customs dossier;

(2) Carry out random inspection of documents of not exceeding 5% of total import shipments subject to reduced inspection within the past 12 months;

(3) Issue the notice of quality inspection results and grant clearance.

b) New food safety inspection model

- Inspection methods:

Imported goods subject to food safety inspection shall be inspected by adopting 03 inspection methods as follows:

+ Tightened inspection: Normal inspection shall be carried out in one of the following cases:

(i) Goods do not meet imported requirements in the previous inspection;

(ii) Goods do not meet requirements in inspections (if any);

(iii) Goods are given warning by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Provincial People’s Committees or foreign competent authorities or manufacturers.

+ Normal inspection: Normal inspection shall be carried out in one of the following cases:

(i) Goods are subject to neither tightened inspection nor reduced inspection;

(ii) Goods meet import requirements in 03 consecutive tightened inspections within the last 12 months.

+ Reduced inspection: Reduced inspection shall be carried out in one of the following cases:

(i) Goods meet food safety requirements as certified by competent authorities of the country that has entered into a mutual recognition agreement regarding food safety inspection to which Vietnam is a signatory; shipments/goods are given satisfactory inspection results by competent authorities of the exporting country in accordance with the law of Vietnam;

(ii) Goods meet import requirements in 03 consecutive normal inspections within the last 12 months;

(iii) Goods are manufactured by manufacturers that apply GMP, HACCP, ISO 22000, IFS, BRC, FSSC 22000 or another equivalent quality management system.

- Inspecting authorities:

Inspections of imported goods subject to food safety inspection shall be carried out at authorities responsible for inspection of imported foods assigned/designated by Ministry of Health, Ministry of Industry and Trade or Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (hereinafter referred to as “assigned/designated inspecting authorities”) and customs authorities. To be specific:

+ Assigned/designated inspecting authorities shall carry out food safety inspections of imported goods which are subject to tightened inspection and normal inspection. To be specific:

(i) With regard to imported goods subject to tightened inspection, assigned/designated inspecting authorities shall carry out the food safety inspection according to the following procedures: