The People’s Committee of the northern province of Lao Cai, which borders China, has decided to halt temporary import and re-export activities through its Ban Vuoc auxiliary border gate from August 22.

Under Decision 1336/QD-UBND issued by the provincial People’s Committee on May 21, 2014, goods were allowed to be temporarily imported and re-exported to China via Ban Vuoc auxiliary border gate and Muong Khuong border gate.

According to the committee, the decision comes as temporary and re-export activities have since then exposed infrastructure weaknesses at the gate, evidenced by storage capacity, as well as custom clearance incompetence.

The move also aims to ease overload in Ban Vuoc border gate which was sparked by a large volume of goods subject to these activities, said the committee.

The local Industry and Trade Department reported that during only two months of pilot implementation, as many as 1,589 containers of goods were temporarily imported and re-exported through Muong Khuong and Ban Vuoc gates, with a total value of 88 million USD.

Meanwhile, a number of domestic companies voiced their complaints to the Prime Minister and relevant authorised agencies as the temporarily imported and re-exported goods blocked their exports of farm produce to China through Ban Vuoc gate.-VNA