The Ministry of
Industry and Trade (MOIT) has unexpectedly released a new decision, requesting
car importers to show additional documents for customs procedures. Meanwhile,
the documents are believed to be unattainable for many car dealers.

Reasoning
the protection of consumers and the road traffic safety, on May 12, MOIT
unexpectedly set up new requirements on the import of the cars with less than
nine seats. From June 26, the importers of these kinds of cars will have to
show the proxies issued by importers or genuine distributors, or the agency
contracts issued by manufacturers. All these kinds of products must be
legalized by Vietnamese diplomatic agencies in foreign countries. If the
documents are copies, they must be stamped and certified.

Besides
this, enterprises must show the certificates showing that warranty and
maintenance workshops can meet the requirements granted by the Ministry of
Transport, to be able to put cars into circulation.

The
decision on the required additional procedures was issued several days after
the ministry set up similar requirements on alcohol, cosmetics and mobile phone
imports.

Car dealers
have expressed their worries that the new decision will deal a blow on the
import car market and make it more difficult to import cars to Vietnam.

A customs
official commented that the decision is a kind of barrier that MOIT has set up
in order to restrict the imports of cars, considered a kind of luxurious
products which Vietnam
does not encourage to import.

“The new
regulations do not break WTO commitments, but they will make unauthorized car
dealers meet difficulties, because they will not be able to satisfy the
requirements on necessary documents,” the official said

Director Pham
Huu Tam, of Tradoco–a big car import company, noted that the MOIT’s decision
would force a series of import car companies to shut down business, because
they will never get such documents.

According
to Tam, to date, companies have been importing cars to Vietnam under
the mode of normal procurement contracts. This means that when importing, they
do not have to show genuine proxies or agency contracts, because they simply
act as the goods buyers. Enterprises themselves do not know where they should
contact to get the proxy for distribution. Even if enterprises can get the
documents, it will take them a lot of time and money.

Under the
current regulations, importers only need to show normal procurement contracts
and certificates on registration and imports’ quality will be able to put the
imports into circulation.

“I believe
that only the authorized agencies of the 11 operational automobile joint
ventures in Vietnam can have the genuine proxies, or agency contracts, while
small car dealers will not have the required documents”, he said.

He went on
to say that with the new regulations, if enterprises want to import Toyota cars from the US,
enterprises must get the agency contracts from Toyota
Vietnam.
If so, all car import companies will have to become the agents of domestic
automobile joint ventures, if they want to maintain their operation.

“With the
new decision, the car market will fall into the hands of the members of the
Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association VAMA,” he said.

Meanwhile,
foreign made cars will have to be imported into Vietnam through a narrow door,
while many car dealers will have to stop business due to the strict
regulations.

“The MOIT’s
new decision has closed all the doors to car dealers,” the owner of a big
import car in HCM
City commented.

Prior to
that, MOIT announced that from June 1, mobile phones can be imported to Vietnam through three seaports, including Hai
Phong, Da Nang and HCM City.

Source: VnExpress