The MARD directly answers the questions from US enterprises

Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) attending the meeting include Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh and several units from the Ministry. Regarding the USBAC, the team leader was Mr. Michael W. Michalak, former US Ambassador in Vietnam, Senior Vice President and Regional Executive Director of USABC, and a number of companies under the Board such as Cargill, Corteva Agriscience, Elanco Animal Health and MSD Animal Health.

At the beginning of the meeting, USABC presented a summary of 8 proposed projects from mentioned companies, including 4 projects on livestock and animal health, 3 projects on agricultural trade and investment, and 1 project related to food safety.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh highly appreciated the 8 projects proposed by USABC, which were agreed in the memorandum of the two sides. As stated by Mr. Le Quoc Doanh, the Ministry will assign the Department of International Cooperation along with other units to coordinate with the companies and USABC to implement and make sure the projects reach the highest efficiency.

After discussing the above 8 projects, enterprises under the USABC have shared some problems that need to be clarified.

Elanco Animal Health Company issued 3 problems. The first is related to Circular 12 on the management of veterinary drugs having precursors and drugs. Elanco Animal Health hopes that in the near future, the MARD will have more conferences to clarify this issue. To answer this issue, the Department of Animal Health said that the conference concerning Circular 12 may be held in May.

After that, representatives of Elanco Animal Health also mentioned two more problems about the national action plan for the prevention of antimicrobial resistance in Vietnam and the use of some special pharmaceutical chemicals.

Regarding this issue, the representative of the Department of Livestock Production said that regulations on Salmonella and heavy metals are being supplemented and modified by the Research Department to both conform to international practices and to comply with the management regulations in Vietnam. As for the Aflatoxin regulation, the Department of Livestock Production said that no changes would be made.

Cargill Company raised a number of issues regarding the development of favorable policies and procedural mitigation to develop business in the livestock industry, such as the "Certificate of Free Sale". Meanwhile, Corteva Agriscience brought out some issues concerning the pesticide administration, approval of genetically modified traits used to make animal feed and interruptions in biosafety licensing for a number of genetically modified products, which were answered by Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh and the units in the MARD.

After the exchange process, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh emphasized that the two sides had attended the meeting in a very friendly and straightforward manner while discussing the problems and proposals of the USABC, receiving feedbacks from MARD.

"The general point of view is to ensure the harmony between international law and Vietnam’s law, helping businesses more open in the process of participating in supporting the agricultural sector", said Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh also raised a number of recommendations to USABC, that is to support economic development during the current Covid-19 situation, expecting the transfer of new technologies that are eco-friendly, and closer collaboration between US companies and Vietnamese counterparts.