The circular applies to: (1) Issuing authorities of Certificate of Origin (C/O); (2) Traders; (3) Organizations and individuals that have activities related to the origin of goods. This legal document is highly crucial in instructing related authorities to issue preferential C/O and ensuring the whole community to comply with the regulations when implementing the EVFTA.
Pursuant to the Circular No.11/2020/TT-BCT, once the EVFTA comes into effect, Vietnamese commodities exported to the EU will be granted C/O Form EUR.1 and enjoy preferential tariff in line with the EVFTA.
The issuance of C/O Form EUR.1 on exported goods to the EU as per the EVFTA will be implemented by authorized issuing authorities of preferential C/O, assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Through this Circular, the Vietnamese government is taking specific actions to build up and perfect the domestic legal groundwork presented in the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Action Plan on the Implementation of the EVFTA.
Compared with other FTAs, the EVFTA’s rules of origin are assessed to have more new and complicated regulations in terms of both the enclosed criteria and stipulations explanations.
Some noticeable new regulations applied in this Circular:
- Certain commodities like garments, processed cuttle and octopus subject to accumulation with raw materials from non-Party
- The mechanism of proving and verifying the origin of commodities.
- Segregation of commodities from a third party not participating in the agreement
- Special article about territories
Moreover, when the EVFTA takes effect, commodities staying in one of the member countries or in the process of being transported, temporarily stored in either a bonded warehouse or a non-tariff zone will enjoy preferential tariff as long as the certificate of origin will then be submitted to the importing party’s customs department.
Circular No.11/2020/TT-BCT will come into force from August 1st, 2020, and is deemed as a prerequisite for Vietnamese enterprises to take good advantage of preferential tariff once the EVFTA is effective.
To facilitate all Vietnamese firms in the process of implementing the EVFTA, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also comes up with feasible measures in the plan of action, including 04 main groups of actions, including: (1) Disseminate information about EVFTA and the European partners’ markets; (2) Build and perfect legal framework and mechanism; (3) Enhance competitive capabilities and develop domestic labor force; (4) Direct and issue policies regarding labor unions and organizations in all enterprises.
Edited by: Dandelion
