To: Departments of Animal Health and Plant Protection Departments.

Department of Livestock Production receives request submitted by enterprises importing livestock feeds for guidance on Certificates of Free Sale (CFS) and equivalent documents on import livestock feeds as specified in Point c Clause 3 Article 18 of Decree No. 13/2020/ND-CP dated January 21, 2020 of Government on elaborating to Law on Husbandry, Department of Livestock Production hereby addresses following remarks to enable quality inspection of import livestock feeds: 

1. For CFS

- CFS is specified in Article 36 of Law on Foreign Trade Management as follows:

“1. Certificate of free sale is a certificate issued to an exporter by the competent authority of the exporting country to certify the free sale of products in the exporting country.

2. Certificates of free sale include certificates that are specialized or contain sufficient contents of a certificate of free sale and other certificates containing equivalent contents.”

- Basic information in CFS of import goods specified in Clause 3 Article 10 of Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018 of Government on elaborating to Law on Foreign Trade Management includes:

“a) Name of CFS issuing authority.

b) CFS number and date of issue.

c) Goods eligible for CFS.

d) Type or category of goods eligible for CFS.

dd) Manufacturer’s name and address.

e) The CFS clearly indicates that the goods are produced and freely sold in the market or the country of production or the country by which the CFS is issued.

g) Full name and signature of the CFS signatory and seal of the CFS issuing authority.”

2. For documents equivalent to CFS

a) Via recent applications for sale of import livestock feeds, Departments of Livestock Production receives documents equivalent to CFS of exporting countries satisfying Clause 3 Article 10 of Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP , to be specific:

- Documents submitted by organizations assigned by governments of exporting countries containing all contents of CFS (e.g. Trade promotion associations, departments, Trade departments, Industry and commercial departments, Exporting centers, Inspection centers, etc. of some countries namely Korea, Australia, Russia, certain states of the US, certain states of India, etc.)

- License for manufacturing livestock feeds issued for manufacturers by competent authorities of exporting countries containing all contents of CFS (e.g. Korea, China, Thailand, etc.)

- Documents publicized by manufacturers of organizations responsible for product quality to be containing all contents of CFS and verified by regulatory authorities or organizations assigned by governments of exporting countries (e.g. France, China, certain states of India, etc.).

Documents equivalent to CFS of an exporting country may vary in terms of form, issuing agencies or organizations depending on states, regions, provinces, etc. (e.g. India, US, Australia, China, Korea, etc.).

b) Animal or plant inspection certificates stating that the products are suitable for livestock feeds or human foods shall be considered and accepted as documents equivalent to CFS.

3. Other notes

- CFS or equivalent documents presented in English are not required to include Vietnamese translations (according to Clause 3 Article 18 of Decree No. 13/2020/ND-CP).

- CFS or equivalent documents presented in languages other than English are required to include verified Vietnamese translations (according to Clause 6 Article 4 of Decree No. 13/2020/ND-CP).

Departments of Animal Health and Plant Protection Departments are hereby requested to conduct quality inspection on import livestock feeds according to Point c Clause 3 Article 18 of Decree No. 13/2020/ND-CP .

Difficulties that arise during the implementation should be reported to Departments of Livestock Production or Departments of Legal Affairs for explanation and solutions./.