On March 6, 2020, Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance issued Circular No.13/2020/TT-BTC amending Circular No.13/2015/TT-BTC on the inspection, supervision and temporary suspension of customs procedures of imported/exported goods. Circular 13 will be effective April 20, 2020.

Below are the important changes: 

1. Requests for customs recordal can be electronically filed through Electronic Customs Data Processing System (New Article 6 of Circular 13).

• Recordal requests as well as all required documents can be electronically filed.

• If the e-customs system is not yet available or has error, the requests could still be physically submitted to customs, and all the formal requirements related to the requests as well as the supporting documents thereof remain the same.

• “At present, to the best of our knowledge, customs have been running their e-customs system for declaration,” says Manh Hung Tran, managing partner at BMVN International in Hanoi. “This system has yet to support recordal. That said, we believe that customs will soon update their system for the above-said electronic filing.”

2. Right to supplement documents in case of shortcomings (New Article 7 of Circular 13)

• Within five working days from the filing date of the request for recordal, customs will issue a notice informing the applicant of any shortcomings regarding the dossier.

• The applicant has 10 working days from the issuing date of the Customs’ notice to supplement required documents.

3. New renewal deadline for recordal (New Article 8.1 of Circular 13)

“Renewal request for recordal must be filed at least 20 days prior to expiry,” says Hoa Tran, a special counsel at the firm. “There is no grace period allowing for late submission.”

4. Customs’ right in cancellation of recordal validity (New Article 8.2 of Circular 13)

If customs find that the evidence in the dossier is no longer valid (e.g. trademark registration has expired or been cancelled) or fabricated, they have the right to cancel the recordal validity by issuing a notice to the right holder within five working days from the date that customs receive a request of the applicant or other notice of a state agency.

5. Right holders can now request for suspension of customs procedures of a shipment before receiving recordal acceptance (New Article 9 of Circular 13)

Under Circular 13, if right holders file requests for recordal but are yet to receive acceptance, they can request for a suspension of customs procedures for shipment, provided that they submit customs: (i) copies of the requests and the supporting documents as filed; (ii) proof of payment for the regulated deposit or bank guarantee documents; and (iii) proof of payment for the customs fee.

6. Suspension of customs procedures (New Article 10 of Circular 13)

“Unlike the old circular that allows customs to lengthen the period of suspension of customs procedures in case there is a need for obtaining assessment conclusion of infringement or expert opinion from relevant state agencies, this period is now fixed at 10 days (extendible for a maximum of another 10 days for justified reason),” says Son Tuan Do, an associate at the firm.

7. Amendment on inspection and supervision procedures (New Article 12 of Circular 13)

Inspection of customs dossier

• Regarding customs import/export declaration, importer/exporter must fully and precisely declare information for all required data fields (i.e. code, characteristic and function).

• Customs shall examine the declared information with documents on the dossier to ensure consistency (i.e. on name, brand, origin, value, quality, specification and component).

• Customs shall examine name of importer/exporter, product, brand with data provided by the GDC, and data gathered by customs to identify goods with infringing signs.

If the importer/exporter is on the list of importers/exporters of IP infringing goods and goods with infringing sign, the right holder or his authorized representative will be notified.

If the importer/exporter is not on the list of authorized importers/exporters or the list of importers/exporters of potentially infringing goods, the IP owner or his authorized representative will only be notified of the goods with sign of infringement, on the basis of inspection of customs dossier and/or actual identification of such goods.

• Customs will continue the procedures for goods at issue when there are sufficient grounds to deem them conformable and free of counterfeit sign.

In case of suspicion or conflict between the declared information and the information on the request for inspection and supervision, and customs still lack grounds for determination of infringement, the Director of that Customs Sub-department will proceed with an actual inspection of the goods, as well as specifically identifying signs of counterfeit for the officers to note during inspection.

Actual inspection of goods

• Customs shall examine product name, printed brand on packaging, and the imported/exported products themselves with product name and brand as declared on declarations, dossier documents and warning notices (if any) to determine conformability.

• Customs shall examine the imported/exported products with the request for inspection and supervision (i.e. through provided photos, descriptions and guidelines for product authentication) to determine counterfeits and goods with infringing signs.

• Customs are also entitled to investigate and verify if there is insufficient basis to determine whether or not the products are counterfeit.

Johnny Chan