The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has recently released a draft circular providing the principles of identifying “made in Vietnam” goods, which would be applied exclusively to goods sold in the domestic market.
Goods identified as “made in Vietnam” goods under the draft would not be automatically treated as exported goods of Vietnamese origin. The determination of origin of exported goods will comply with Vietnam’s law or importing countries’ regulations on origin of goods.
Producers and traders may label their goods as “made in Vietnam” if satisfying the criteria set in the draft and would take responsibility for their determination.
In case it is impossible to determine whether goods are made in Vietnam, producers and traders could label goods with phrases to express the place where the final stage of production/processing/finishing is conducted such as “assembled in Vietnam”, “bottled in Vietnam”, “mixed in Vietnam”, “finished in Vietnam”; “packed in Vietnam”, or “labeled in Vietnam”.
Goods identified as “made in Vietnam” goods include plants and plant products grown and harvested in Vietnam; live animals and products from live animals born and raised in the country; goods obtained from hunting or trapping within the land territory or fishing or aquaculture conducted within the internal waters or within the territorial sea of Vietnam; minerals and other naturally occurring substances extracted or taken from the soil, waters, seabed or beneath the seabed of Vietnam.
They also include products of sea-fishing and other marine products taken from international seas by vessels registered with Vietnam or entitled to fly the Vietnamese flag as well as products produced or made therefrom on board such vessels.- (VLLF)
