CIRCULAR

GUIDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRIME MINISTERS DECISION No. 91/2003/QD-TTg OF DUTY QUOTAS TO GOODS IMPORTED INTO VIETNAM FOR 2005.

- Pursuant to the Governments Decree No.57/1998/QD-CP dated July 31, 2001 detailing the implementation of the Commercial Law regarding the goods import, export, processing, and sale and purchase agency activities with foreign countries;
- Pursuant to the Governments Decree No.44/2001/ND-CP of August 2, 2001 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Governments Decree No.57/1998/ND-CP of July 31, 1998;
- Pursuant to Prime Ministers Decision No.46/2001/QD-TTg of April 4, 2001 on the management of goods import and export in the 2001-2005 period;
- Pursuant to the Prime Ministers Decision No.91/2003/QD-TTg of May 9, 2003 on the application of duty quotas to goods imported into Vietnam;
- After consulting with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Trade hereby guides the implementation of the Prime Ministers Decision No.91/2003/QD-TTg of May 9, 2003 for 2005 as follows:

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS:

1. To apply the 2005 duty quotas to 07 commodity items: raw material tobacco, salt, cotton, condensed raw material milk, maize seeds and poultry eggs according to the following details:

Ordinal

Ordinal No.

HS Code

Description

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1

0401

Raw material milk, uncondensed

To be allocated according to demand

2

0402

Raw material milk, condensed

To be allocated according to demand

3

...

...

...

Poultry eggs

To be allocated according to demand

4

1005

Maize seeds

To be allocated according to demand

5

2401

Raw material tobacco

...

...

...

6

2501

Salt

200,000 tons

7

5201,5202,5203

Cotton

To be allocated according to demand

2. The description and the 8-digit codes of uncondensed raw material milk and condensed raw material milk are specified according to the list of goods for the application of duty quotas, issued together with the Finance Ministrys Decision No.36/2004/QD-BTC of April 15, 2004.

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The Ministry of Trade shall grant import permits to traders who are eligible for importing goods on the list of those subject to duty quotas, concretely as follows:

1. For raw material tobacco:

They are traders who have been granted permits for cigarette production by the Industry Ministry and wish to use a certain percentage of imported raw material tobacco for production of cigarettes, in accordance with the Industry Ministrys regulations on annual import plans.

Commodity-line corporations shall acts as main units in receiving quotas for their member companies.

2. For salt:

They are trades who wish to use salt for production, in accordance with regulations of specialized managing ministries.

Commodity-line corporations shall act as main units in receiving quotas for their member companies.

3. For cotton:

They are traders who have business registration certificates with suitable production/business lines and wish to import cotton.

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4. For condensed raw material milk, uncondensed raw material milk, maize seed, and poultry eggs:

They are traders who have business registration certificates with suitable production/business lines and wish to import the above-stated commodity items.

III. ALLOCATION OF DUTY QUOTAS

1. Based on the volumes of the 2005 duty quotas (for the commodity items of salt and raw material tobacco, for which the quota volumes have been prescribed) and on the basis of the balance between import results and traders demands for duty quotas, the Ministry of Trade shall consider and grant import permit according to duty quotas to traders being subject stated in Section II of this Circular.

2. For commodity items, for which duty quotas shall be allocated according to demands, quota volumes for subsequent periods may be prescribed. The Ministry of Trade shall announce the volumes of quota (if any) in separate documents at least 3 months before the application thereof after consulting with the concerned ministries and branches. The duty-quota volumes shall be determined on the principle of basing on the balance between raw material demands and domestic production capability.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

1. Traders shall produce permits for goods import according to duty quotas, granted by the Ministry of Trade or agencies authorized by the Ministry of Trade or agencies authorized by the Ministry of Trade, to the border-gate customs offices when carrying out the import procedures and the quantity of import goods stated in the permits shall be liable to the import tax rates within the duty quotas.

2. Traders shall report on the import situation to the Ministry of Trade (according to a set from) at the end of every quarter.

Before September 30, 2005, traders shall send the Ministry of Trade reports (in replacement of reports for the third quarter) assessing the import capability of the whole year and proposing the increase or decrease of the volume of the to-be-allocated quota or reporting on the volume of goods they cannot import for the Ministry of Trade to allocate such quotas to other traders.

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4. For traders who are eligible for importing commodity items subject to duty quotas as prescribed in Section I of this Circular, if they have not yet been allocated quotas by the Ministry of Trade or have used all quotas, they shall be allocated to import such commodity items according to their demands without having to apply for the Trade Ministrys permits but subject to the import tax rates outside the duty quotas as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance.

5. Traders who are eligible for importing commodity items subject to duty quotas as prescribed in Section II of this Circular, if wishing to apply for supplementation or allocation of quotas for the import of raw materials in service of export goods production, shall send application for registration of duty quotas to the Ministry of Trade for consideration and grant of import permits for consideration and grant of import permits according to duty quotas. Applications for registration of duty quotas must be certified by specialized managing ministries (for salt and raw material tobacco) on the import demands in service of export goods production.

6. Registration of duty quotas for 2006:

Trader who wish to import the above-stated commodity items shall send applications for registration of duty quotas for 2006, made according to a set form, to the Ministry of Trade before October 30, 2005.

7. This Circular takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette and replaces the Trade Ministrys Circular No.09/2033/TT-BTM of December 15, 2003/QD-TTg of May 9, 2003 on the application of duty quotas to goods imported into Vietnam for 2004.

Forms issued together with this Circular may be printed from the Trade Ministrys website at the address: www.mot.gov.vn.

ON BEHALF OF MINISTER OF TRADE
VICE MINISTER





Phan The Rue