Support for exporters to China: Vague fear pushes businesses away SPS Office Vietnam’s helping hand

Fear of fraud

- May I ask if this is agro-products export Company A?

- That's right.

- I'm Dinh Duc Hiep from SPS Office Vietnam. Your company has not completed the application for export registration to China. China Customs requested us to review and ask if your company can complete the procedures this week...

- We have received many calls like this. Goodbye.

Before the staff of the SPS Vietnam Office could say anything more, the other end of the line went silent. Mr. Hiep shook his head, and his smile was bitter: “At least they don't think of me as a scammer. That's already luck. Let's call back next time."

And his “next time” was in the next couple of hours. Patiently and persistently he called, but the answer he received the past two weeks was all the same: “We know that already. We acknowledge your effort. We will report to those who are responsible.”

Company A, along with 59 other businesses, is on the list required by the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) to verify the information. This group has registered on the system and asked for a code for product code exported to the China market under Decrees 248 and 249, but there were no signs of operation on the system: from login to password change and information update in accordance with the Decrees’ provisions.

In the document sent to the SPS Office Vietnam, GACC clearly stated: "Based on the feedback of Vietnamese businesses and authorities, the validity of information will be put into consideration to whether continue and maintain the issuance of a registration code on the system or delete if the information remained unclear". That means if businesses answered like Company A, they can be removed from the registration system.

This is a matter of great urgency, but businesses are quite indifferent to calls from SPS Vietnam even though the office staff has provided website address, contact information as well as the job title. Statistics from SPS Vietnam show that 15-20% of businesses cannot be contacted, and half of the success calls don’t reach the leader.

Responding to SPS Office Vietnam, most businesses were afraid of being scammed. approximately 10% said "not interested" in the information provided by the Office. Others claimed that they were exporting normally at the moment and expressing their peace of mind based on the strong relationship with their Chinese business partners.

The only vivid problem is that they have not completed the documents on the system of the General Department of Customs of this country.

Thoughtless manner

At many conferences, workshops, and forums, domestic enterprises still complain about the difficulty in issuing codes and completing export documents.

To explain this issue, Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of SPS Office Vietnam, said the registration procedure is divided into three stages.

Stage 1: Enterprises self-complete the application and send all information to one of the five competent authorities in Vietnam: National Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Assurance Department; Plant Protection Department; Department of Animal Health; Food Safety Authority (Ministry of Health); Department of Science and Technology (Ministry of Industry and Trade).

Stage 2: The competent authority in Vietnam will confirm the business profile. If the information is detailed and correct, the dossier will be transferred to the General Administration of Customs of China.

Stage 3: the General Administration of Customs of China reviews the dossier. The whole process from validation to code approval can be tracked on the website.

"We share with businesses the difficulties in registering export documents and procedures. However, in order to adapt to Decrees 248, 249 as well as the increasing requirements of the world market, businesses must actively monitor the progress of dossier processing. They must know at which stage they are stuck, not just naming the problem in general and making it difficult for state management agencies to support," said Mr. Nam.

The SPS Vietnam Deputy Director believed that domestic enterprises are not familiar with the new way things were done. “Most enterprises think that just sending the profile and they are done without caring about updating the information that other side notified.”

The papers are full of crosses, and more letters are overflowing the margins to record content, add information and requests from businesses. Each SPS Vietnam staff works like a true operator, searching for business registration information and updating contact numbers because the information on the website is mostly old and many provinces have changed the phone area codes.

Bearing the situation in mind, the SPS Vietnam Office had mobilized personnel to focus on reviewing all 60 businesses for several days in a row since receiving the letter requesting cooperation from GACC in March 2022.

"The Chinese side is very understanding of the confusion our businesses are suffering. There are many times when we discussed with them until 11 pm but the Chinese side still enthusiastically answered. We all want to join hands to ensure export activities between Vietnam and China," said Mr. Nam.