Circular No. 10/2009/TT-BCT

CIRCULAR

IMPLEMENTING THE RULES OF ORIGIN UNDER THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM AND JAPAN FOR AN ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 189/2007/ND-CP dated December 27, 2007, defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Industry and Trade; Pursuant to the Agreement between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and Japan for an Economic Partnership, signed on December 25, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan; Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 19/2006/ND-CP dated February 20, 2006, detailing the Commercial Law regarding origin of goods;

The Ministry of Industry and Trade provides for the implementation of the rules of origin under the Agreement between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and Japan for an Economic Partnership as follows:

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Interpretation of terms

1. The Agreement between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and Japan for an Economic Partnership is the agreement signed on December 25, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan (referred to in this Circular as the VJEPA Agreement).

2. The Certificate of Origin form VJ (referred to in this Circular as the C/O) is a C/O issued by a C/O issuing body for exported goods that satisfy the provisions of this Circular.

3. Viet Nam's C/O form VJ issuing bodies (referred to in this Circular as the C/O issuing bodies) are the organizations listed in Appendix 12.

4. Applicants for the C/O form VJ (referred to in this Circular as C/O applicants) include exporters, producers, and duly authorised representatives of exporters or producers.

5. The eCoSys system is Viet Nam's electronic origin certification and management system, located at: http://www.ecosys.gov.vn.

6. Member countries are Viet Nam and Japan.

Article 2. Goods eligible for the issuance of a C/O

Goods eligible for the issuance of a C/O are goods originating under Appendix 1 to this Circular.

Article 3. Responsibilities of the C/O applicant

The C/O applicant shall:

1. Register a trader profile with the C/O issuing body under Article 5;

2. Submit the C/O application dossier to the C/O issuing body;

3. Prove that the exported goods satisfy the origin requirements and facilitate the C/O issuing body in verifying the origin of the goods;

4. Be liable before the law for the accuracy and truthfulness of the declarations relating to the C/O application, including where acting under the exporter's authorisation;

5. Promptly report to the C/O issuing body where the trader applied any C/O issued by Viet Nam's C/O issuing bodies that the importing country has refused to recognise (if any);

6. Enable the C/O issuing body to inspect the production facility or the place where the exported goods are raised, grown, harvested and processed;

7. Prove the authenticity of the origin of the exported goods at the request of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the C/O issuing body, the domestic customs authority or the customs authority of the importing country.

Article 4. Responsibilities of the C/O issuing body

The C/O issuing body shall:

1. Guide the C/O applicant upon request;

2. Receive and examine the trader profile and the C/O application dossier;

3. Verify the actual origin of the goods where necessary;

4. Issue the C/O where the goods satisfy the origin requirements of this Circular and the C/O applicant complies with Article 3;

5. Send the specimen signatures of the persons authorised to sign C/O and the seal of the C/O issuing body to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Import-Export Department) under the regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for registration with the competent authority of Japan;

6. Settle complaints relating to the issuance of C/O within its competence;

7. Re-verify the origin of exported goods at the request of the competent authority of the importing country;

8. Exchange information relating to the issuance of C/O with other C/O issuing bodies;

9. Comply with the reporting regime and other requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Chapter II

C/O ISSUANCE PROCEDURES

Article 5. Registration of the trader profile

1. A C/O applicant may be considered for the issuance of a C/O only at the place where its trader profile has been registered, after completing the trader profile registration. The trader profile comprises:

a) Registration of the specimen signature of the person authorised to sign the C/O application and the trader's seal (Appendix 11);

b) The trader's business registration certificate (a copy bearing a certified true copy stamp);

c) The tax identification number registration certificate (a copy bearing a certified true copy stamp);

d) The list of the trader's production facilities (if any) (Appendix 10).

2. Any change to the trader profile must be notified to the C/O issuing body where it was registered before applying for a C/O. Where there is no change, the trader profile must nevertheless be updated once every two (02) years.

3. Where, due to force majeure or with a legitimate reason, a C/O applicant wishes to obtain a C/O at a place other than where its trader profile was previously registered, it must send a document stating the reason for not applying at the place of the previous registration and must register a trader profile with that new C/O issuing body.

Article 6. C/O application dossier

1. The C/O application dossier comprises:

a) The C/O application (Appendix 9), completed in full and validly as instructed in Appendix 8;

b) The C/O form (Appendix 6), completed in full;

c) The customs declaration for which customs procedures have been completed. Exported goods that are not required by law to be declared on a customs declaration need not submit one;

d) The commercial invoice;

dd) The bill of lading or an equivalent transport document where the trader has no bill of lading. Where a back-to-back C/O is issued for a whole or part of a consignment from a non-tariff zone into the domestic market, this document may not be mandatory if the trader in fact does not have one;

Where the completed export customs declaration and the bill of lading (or the document equivalent to the bill of lading) are not yet available, the C/O applicant may owe these documents for no more than fifteen (15) working days from the date the C/O is issued.

2. Where it deems necessary, the C/O issuing body may request the C/O applicant to provide additional documents relating to the exported goods, such as: the import customs declaration for raw materials and supplies; the export licence (if any); the sale and purchase contract; value-added invoices for the domestic purchase of raw materials and supplies; samples of the raw materials, supplies or exported goods; a description of the production process of the goods with the HS codes of the input materials and of the goods (for the change in tariff classification criterion or the specific process criterion); the regional value content calculation (for the regional value content criterion); and other documents proving the origin of the exported goods.

3. Where the documents referred to at Points c, d and dd of Clause 1 and in Clause 2 are copies signed and stamped as certified true copies by the trader's legal representative or authorised person, the C/O issuing body may request the originals for comparison if it deems necessary.

4. For traders participating in eCoSys, the person authorised to sign the C/O application shall declare the data through the eCoSys system, sign electronically and transmit it automatically to the C/O issuing body. After examining the dossier on the eCoSys system, if it agrees to issue the C/O, the C/O issuing body shall notify the trader through eCoSys to submit the complete paper dossier to the C/O issuing body for comparison before the C/O is issued.

Article 7. Receipt of the C/O application dossier

When the C/O applicant submits the dossier, the receiving officer shall receive and examine the dossier and notify the C/O applicant, by a receipt or in another written form, that one of the following will be carried out:

1. Issuing the C/O under Article 8;

2. Requesting additional documents under Article 6;

3. Refusing to issue the C/O upon detecting one of the following cases:

a) The C/O applicant has not registered a trader profile under Article 5;

b) The C/O application dossier is inaccurate or incomplete as required by Article 6;

c) The C/O applicant has not submitted the owed documents under Article 6;

d) The dossier contains contradictory contents;

dd) The C/O application dossier is submitted at a place other than where the trader profile was registered;

e) The C/O form is completed by hand, or is erased, or is illegibly faded, or is printed in more than one colour of ink;

g) There is lawful evidence that the goods are not originating under this Circular, or the C/O applicant has committed a fraudulent or dishonest act in proving the origin of the goods.

Article 8. Issuance of the C/O

1. The C/O must be issued within no more than three (03) working days from the time the C/O applicant submits a complete and valid dossier, except in the case provided in Clause 2 of this Article.

2. The C/O issuing body may carry out an inspection at the place of production where it finds that examination of the dossier is not a sufficient basis for issuing the C/O, or where it detects signs of a violation of law in respect of previously issued C/O. The inspecting officer of the C/O issuing body shall draw up a record of the inspection result and request the C/O applicant and/or the exporter to countersign it. Where the C/O applicant and/or the exporter refuses to sign, the inspecting officer must state the reason for the refusal and sign to certify the record.

In such a case, the time limit for processing the issuance of the C/O is no more than five (05) working days from the date the applicant submits a complete dossier.

3. Where, in the course of considering the issuance of a C/O, it is found that the goods do not satisfy the origin requirements or that the dossier is incomplete or invalid, the C/O issuing body shall notify the C/O applicant under Clause 2 or Clause 3 of Article 7.

4. The verification period must not obstruct the exporter's delivery or payment, except where the fault lies with the exporter.

Article 9. Revocation of an issued C/O

The C/O issuing body shall revoke an issued C/O in the following cases:

1. The exporter or the C/O applicant has forged documents.

2. The C/O was issued inconsistently with the origin criteria.

Chapter III

ORGANIZATION OF THE MANAGEMENT OF C/O ISSUANCE

Article 10. Competence to sign C/O

Only persons who have completed the registration of their specimen signatures with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and whom the Ministry of Industry and Trade has registered with the competent authority of Japan, are entitled to sign and issue C/O.

Article 11. Focal agency

The Import-Export Department is the focal agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade performing the following tasks:

1. Guiding the implementation and inspecting the issuance of C/O;

2. Carrying out the procedures for registering the specimen signatures of persons competent to sign and issue C/O and the specimen seals of Viet Nam's C/O issuing bodies with the competent authority of Japan, and transferring the specimen signatures of persons competent to sign and issue C/O and the specimen seals of Japan's C/O issuing bodies to the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Customs);

3. Assisting the Minister of Industry and Trade in settling matters relating to the implementation of C/O.

Article 12. Reporting regime

1. C/O issuing bodies must update C/O issuance data through the eCoSys system daily, with all the information required to be declared in the C/O application.

2. A C/O issuing body that violates Clause 1 of this Article for a third time shall be suspended from issuing C/O and this shall be published on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Article 13. Implementation provisions

This Circular takes effect 45 days after the date of signing./.