CIRCULAR

GUIDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRIME MINISTER’S DECISION No. 178/1999/QD-TTg OF AUGUST 30, 1999 ISSUING THE REGULATION ON THE LABELING OF DOMESTICALLY CIRCULATED GOODS AND IMPORT AS WELL AS EXPORT GOODS, WITH REGARD TO CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL GOODS

Pursuant to the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 178/1999/QD-TTg of August 30, 1999 issuing the Regulation on the labeling of domestically circulated goods and export as well as import goods, hereinafter called the Regulation.
Pursuant to the Trade Ministry’s Circular No. 34/1999/TT-BTM of December 15, 1999 guiding the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 178/1999/QD-TTg of August 30, 1999 issuing the Regulation on the labeling of domestically circulated goods and export as well as import goods.
The Ministry of Construction hereby guides a number of specific points for the uniform application of the labeling of construction material and construction mechanical goods, hereinafter collectively called the construction materials, as follows:

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Scope of application: Construction material products made in Vietnam for domestic circulation and export; goods made in foreign countries and imported for sale in the Vietnamese market (except goods temporarily imported for re-export or goods processed for foreign countries) must be affixed with goods labels and the labeling thereof must comply with the guidance in this Circular.

The above-mentioned construction material goods include:

- Group of adhesive substances: cement, clinker, construction lime and other adhesive substances

- Group of building materials: baked or non-baked building bricks of all kinds

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- Group of refractory, sound-proof and heat-insulating materials: Assorted refractory materials, spongy materials, light heat-insulating materials, haydite and other products of the same group

- Wall and floor materials: enameled tiles, ceramic tiles, granite tiles, granito tiles, terra-cotta floor tiles, lining bricks.

- Group of water supply and drainage sanitary materials: sanitary ceramics, basins, sanitary accessories.

- Group of concrete and concrete mixture products: concrete structure components, concrete conduits, commercial concrete products

- Group of chemical additives for construction: Plasticizing, anti-leaking, dilating admixtures and other products of the same group

- Group of construction glass: flat glass, flower-patterned glass, mirror, reflective glass.

- Group of interior decorative products: paint, color lime, decorative sheets for ceilings, floors, windows and doors.

- Group of stones, sand and gravel.

- Group of construction machinery: mixing and extruding machines for brick-making, ball mills, bull clams, beaters, compactors, scaffolds, platforms, locks, hinges, lining sheets, pellets, spare parts and other products of the same group

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2. The labeling of goods:

a/ For packed construction material goods, the labeling shall be made by directly inscribing on their packings or inscribing on the marks to be stuck, pinned on or attached to their packings.

b/ For unpacked construction material goods, the labeling shall be made by directly inscribing on the products or on the marks to be pinned on or attached to the goods on display at the sale places or on separate cards to be supplied to customers.

3. Language used in the goods labels of import goods:

a/ According to Point a, Clause 3, Article 5 of the Regulation, for goods imported for circulation and sale in the Vietnamese market, when signing import contracts, merchants must request the goods suppliers to agree on additional inscription of the compulsory contents’ information in Vietnamese on the foreign-language original labels so as to create favorable conditions for the easy selection and use of these goods by Vietnamese consumers.

b/ Auxiliary labels as provided for at Point b, Clause 3, Article 5 of the Regulation are construed as labels in Vietnamese with the compulsory contents, stuck or attached to goods supplied to purchasers before or after the customs procedures are completed.

+ Auxiliary labels are used in cases where the importing merchants fail to reach an agreement with the foreign goods suppliers upon the inscription of the compulsory contents’ information in Vietnamese on the original labels.

+ Auxiliary labels must not hide the foreign-language original labels of goods; for kinds of goods which are complicated in their use and require safety and accompanied with a foreign-language manual, there must be the Vietnamese translation attached to such foreign-language original manual for supply to purchasers.

+ For unpacked goods, their auxiliary labels must be stuck, pinned on or attached to the goods at the places of sale.

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II. INSCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF GOODS LABELS

A. COMPULSORY CONTENTS

1. The goods appellation:

a/ The goods appellation selected to be inscribed in the goods labels as prescribed in Clauses 1, 2, 3 and 4, Article 6 of the Regulation, must be based on the principal utility and typical natural characteristics of the goods for naming or description. The appellation of goods as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 6 of the Regulation should avoid causing confusion between the appellation of the goods and the name of the manufacturer or the name of the kind of such goods. For example: mixed portland cement (the appellation of goods); Bim Son, Ha Tien I (the name of the manufacturer).

b/ The selection of the name of goods from the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System for inscription on the goods labels as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 6 of the Regulation is construed that only the name of the goods, but not the HS code, is required to be inscribed on the label.

2. Names and addresses of merchants responsible for goods:

a/ The names and addresses of merchants responsible for construction material goods are those used for business registration. An address includes: house number, street (village, hamlet), ward (commune), urban district (rural district, town), city or province

b/ According to Clause 2, Article 7 of the Regulation, the inscription of the names and addresses of merchants responsible for goods assembled by the merchants themselves is construed as applicable also to the re-packing of goods for sale. The names and addresses of the packing establishments shall be inscribed as follows: The packing establishment’ or packed at.

3. Goods quantification:

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4. Constituents:

a/ The constituents of construction material goods inscribed according to Article 9 of the Regulation are mineral or chemical constituents made by the goods-manufacturing technologies and forming the product value. For construction material goods in the form of crude materials like sand, stone, gravel, clay and raw materials for making construction materials, their constituents are the contents of their natural mineral and chemical constituents.

b/ Constituent inscription is compulsory for the following construction material goods: construction paints, construction additives, balls, lining sheets, clinker and gypsum.

5. Principal quality criteria:

a/ The quality criteria inscribed on the goods labels are the principal quality criteria decisive to the main use value of the concerned goods and selected from the Vietnamese standards (TCVN), construction standards (TCXD), sector standards (TCN), enterprise standards (TCXN) or international standards which Vietnam has announced for application. For example: cement PCB 30 TCVN 6260: 1997; solid baked clay bricks: GD 60-100-TCVN 1451: 1998.

b/ Apart from the principal quality criteria to be compulsorily inscribed on the goods labels as prescribed, merchants may add other quality criteria on the goods labels if they deem it necessary.

6. Production date:

All construction material goods must be inscribed with their production date. The production date indicated on the goods labels is abbreviated to NSX. For example: NSX 19.05.00 (produced on May 19, 2000).

7. Use and preservation instructions:

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8. Origin of goods:

For imported and exported construction material goods, the country of origin must be inscribed on their goods labels.

B. OPTIONAL CONTENTS

1. The optional contents may be inscribed on the goods labels or manuals enclosed with the goods as provided for in Article 14 of the Regulation.

2. Merchants may inscribe on the goods labels or manuals enclosed with the goods such contents (if any) as the number and bar codes granted by the national number and bar code organizations; the protected trademarks; awarded medals; certificates of goods’ international quality standards; the serial number of the goods batch; the international markings used for transport and preservation; the telephone and fax numbers.

III. IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

1. The Ministry of Construction assigns the Department for Management of Construction Materials and the Department for Sciences and Technologies to guide and supervise the units in the sector to implement the provisions on the labeling of goods in this Circular.

The provincial/municipal Construction Services and the provincial/municipal Trade Services shall have to guide and supervise the observance of the provisions in this Circular by organizations and individuals producing and dealing in construction materials in localities.

2. This Circular takes effect 15 days after its signing. Those kinds of construction material goods which are labeled in contravention of this Circular shall be regarded as administrative violations in the field of trade activities.

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For construction material goods which have been labeled according to the old pattern before the effective date of this Circular, they shall be allowed to be circulated until the end of December 31, 2000.

FOR THE MINISTER OF CONSTRUCTION
VICE MINISTER




Tong Van Nga