HCM City (VNA) – Vietnamesebusi🎃nesses have been advised to apply the advance origin ruling mechanism toreduce risks amidst significant changes in global trade, such as the US-Chinatrade war.

At a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on December12, Director of the municipal Customs Department Dinh Ngoc Thang said thismechanism will help companies specify the codes, origin, and customs value oftheir products in advance. The advance ruling on goods classification willhelp minimise disagreements between persons filling customs declaration formsand customs officers over the function of goods. Meanwhile, the advance rulingon value will assist firms in estimating the taxes they have to pay in advance whenhandling customs clearance procedures. Notably, the advance ruling on origin will helpeliminate the risks of product origin frauds, which is especially helpful inthe context of the US-China trade war likely to be prolonged, he said. Thang elaborated that the trade tension couldgenerate more opportunities for Vietnamese firms to access the US market in theshort term. However, Vietnam is also facing the risk of becoming a destinationfor Chinese goods to falsify their origin to avoid high US tariffs, which wouldbe damaging to Vietnam in the long run. He added that most Vietnamese businesses haveyet to capitalise on the advance rulings to reduce risks and boostimport-export activities. Since this mechanism was applied four years ago, theHCM City Customs Department has only recorded just over 170 cases using thismechanism. Tran Ngoc Liem, Deputy Director of the HCM Citybranch of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said that thetrade war has a considerable influence on Vietnam’s economy. According to Liem, the US is a leading importer of Vietnamese goods. Thestructures of Vietnamese and Chinese products shipped to the US are alsorelatively similar. This means that there is an opening for Vietnam to replaceChina’s supply sources in the US, but Chinese companies may also take advantageof the goods structure similarity to falsify their origin of goods, he noted. Liem urged domestic enterprises to activelyapply the advance origin ruling to protect themselves, along with theVietnamese economy. Echoing the view, Robert Thommen, arepresentative of the US Customs and Border Protection, said that theapplication of anti-trade fraud measures, like anti-subsidy and anti-dumping, arebecoming more and more popular in the US. In the context of the trade tensionwith China, the US has tightened control over the risks of Chinese goods beingtransferred to a third country. Therefore, Vietnamese firms should be proactivein preventing risks through advance rulings. Notably, they needs to thoroughlyunderstand and adhere to rules of origin to maintain good trade ties with theUS in the long term, he added. –VNA