'Historic' decision of the Minister of Industry and Trade

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh has just signed and issued Decision No. 3610a/QD-BCT promulgating a plan to reduce and simplify investment and business conditions in the fields under the state management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the 2017-2018 period.

Minister Tran Tuan Anh has just signed a historic decision for the industry and trade sector.

This is considered a historic decision by the Minister of Industry and Trade. According to this Decision, 675 investment and business conditions will be cut, about 60 more than the original plan and accounting for about 55.5% of the total business conditions of 27 product groups.

Thus, after the reduction, the number of remaining conditions is only 541. This is considered an unprecedented reduction of investment and business conditions in the history of the industry and trade sector with the largest number of investment and business conditions cut ever.

Previously, in October 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also carried out a strong reduction of administrative procedures according to Decision No. 4846, including: abolishing 15 administrative procedures, simplifying 108 administrative procedures out of a total of 443 procedures, equivalent to 27.8% of the total number of administrative procedures currently available at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

In addition to reforming administrative procedures, cutting and simplifying business conditions, and removing difficulties for businesses in recent times, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has also seriously continued to implement Resolution No. 19/NQ-CP of the Government to create maximum convenience for businesses.

Specifically, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has reduced the number of items subject to pre-clearance inspection by over 58%. Accordingly, up to this point, the Ministry has eliminated about 420 codes out of a total of 720 HS codes subject to pre-clearance inspection under the Ministry's management responsibility.

Currently, within the management scope of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, there are only two types of products that must be inspected before customs clearance: explosive precursors and food. It is known that these are products that must be inspected before customs clearance according to the provisions of the Food Safety Law.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has and will thoroughly apply the principle of risk management to reduce the frequency of food safety inspections for imported foods under the Ministry's management responsibility. Accordingly, shipments of the same type and origin, if meeting food safety requirements through 5 consecutive inspections, will be subject to the method of only checking the records, without taking product samples.

Imported food will only need to be checked on file after 5 consecutive checks that meet food safety requirements.

To further simplify administrative procedures and reduce specialized inspection time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is drafting a Circular amending a number of regulations on food safety inspection under the Ministry's state management. It is expected to be amended to only check the records of shipments of the same type and origin that have met food safety requirements through 3 consecutive inspections (previously 5 times).

Thus, the Ministry of Industry and Trade does not have any products that need to be inspected during customs clearance. The remaining items are those that the Ministry does not have the authority to abolish pre-clearance inspection according to the provisions of law. In the immediate future, from October 1, 2017, all quality inspection of steel products (except for steel for concrete reinforcement) will be transferred to post-inspection.

According to Baophapluat.vn