Customs sector intensifies fight against origin-related frauds

Hanoi (VNA) – The General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) has ordered customs agencies in provinces and cities to intensify inspections to fight origin-related frauds, violations of intellectual property (IP) rights and illegal transport of import-export goods.

In a document sent to provincial and municipal customs agencies, the general department warned about the increase in trade frauds in connection with goods labeling and IP rights.

The GDVC said competent forces have uncovered many cases in which imported goods were labeled “Made in Vietnam”, “Manufactured in Vietnam”, “Originated in Vietnam”, or had their foreign labels replaced with such, with the purpose for consumption in the Vietnamese market.

Traders have taken advantage of legal documents on not requiring sub-labels at customs clearance to import goods and then do not attach sub-labels but change labels, packages and the names of goods for domestic consumption.

The general department also detected the import of goods with counterfeit registered trademark; or the transport of counterfeit goods, goods violating IP property rights or carrying fake Vietnamese origin under the name of transit.

For goods imported into Vietnam with the aim of making use of special preferential tax rates under free trade agreements, importers used fake or invalid C/O to carry out customs procedures or declare false information on C/O.

Besides, a number of enterprises, including foreign-invested ones, import raw materials, semi-finished products, components and spare parts for production, processing and assembly, but their products for export do not undergo processing and manufacturing stages or undergo simple processing, manufacturing and assembling stages that do not meet the origin criteria prescribed. However, they still label the products with Vietnamese origin when exporting. Some enterprises imported goods with the aim of legalizing goods’ dossiers or applying for C/O to give the goods Vietnamese origin, for exporting to the third country.

The GDVC instructed provincial and municipal customs agencies to inspect, supervise and control goods origin and labelling; infringement of IP rights and illegal transit of import and export goods in accordance with legal documents.-VNA