Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has recently organised a seminar on “preventing trade fraud through tricked C/O” to provide more knowledge for enterprises as well as sending warnings about the impact of counterfeited certificate of origin (C/O).
Ms Tran Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Director of Legal Department - VCCI, said: Swindlers usually use tricked C/O for apparel products exported to the EU and the US, agricultural products exported to Taiwan and other commodities like honey, seafood, coffee, metal rings and power-saving lights.
Most counterfeited C/O are made in Vietnam. Before applying for C/O, they prepare falsified data (documents) or fix documents, invoices or records. During the process of obtaining C/O, if officials discover their wrongdoings, they will replace with other documents or supplement fixed documents or use right documents many times.
Mr Mai Xuan Thanh, an inspector of the General Department of Customs, said: they use falsified C/O to avoid antidumping tax and quota and to receive preference tax. They usually imported goods into Vietnam and then exported to third countries. C/O is counterfeited in Vietnam or exporting nations. They also forged export certificates. Even, they mixed Vietnam-originated goods with foreign ones and changed labels and packages.
Ms Huong warned that risks and loss caused by faked C/O are huge. Enterprises will be seriously affected, may lose customers and markets and may be sent to court. Worse, the reputation of the country with those enterprises will be spoiled and the similar products will be crossed off the tariff preference list and will lose competition as a result.
Mr Mai Xuan Thanh warned that C/O issue relates to tax policies and trade policies of a nation and of that nation with other ones. Thus, exporting enterprises need to comply with their long-term benefits to avoid court testimonies and antidumping tax subjection. Foreign units may lean on Vietnamese enterprises to obtain C/O in Vietnam to export to third countries. Therefore, Vietnamese enterprises need to be more careful in C/O negotiations to avoid unexpected problems.
To minimise C/O forging, VCCI has worked with relevant ministries and branches and reminded C/O granting authorities to conduct careful examinations before granting the certificate to sensitive products. Every day, it sends data to customs authorities of Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Turkish Embassy and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.
According to VCCI, to avoid trade fraud through C/O, the cooperation and awareness of enterprises are very important. In fact, many enterprises did not have good cooperation in providing documents and evidences to prove the origin of products. In addition, Vietnam lacks strict sanctions to punish violations. Although it has the Decree 06/2008/ND – CP on administrative punishment in commerce, the fine of VND5-20 million is too light. What’s more, there is no circular to instruct the implementation of this decree.
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