Customs requests the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to identify 4 scrap and waste items awaiting import

The General Department of Customs has just issued Document No. 4623/TCHQ-GSQL dated September 26, 2024 to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (TN&MT) regarding difficulties in determining imported goods under management for goods that are waste and scrap.

According to the content of the document, the General Department of Customs clearly states:

Article 6 of the Law on Environmental Protection stipulates prohibited acts in environmental protection activities, including: "Importing, temporarily importing, re-exporting, and transiting waste from foreign countries in any form".

Currently, 4 items are waiting for comments from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to be imported into Vietnam. Illustration photo: Thu Huong

Pursuant to the provisions of Section 13, Appendix 1 of Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP, scrap and waste are on the list of prohibited import goods under the management responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

In Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018: “Based on Appendix 1 of this Decree, ministries and ministerial-level agencies shall announce details of goods prohibited from export and import, along with commodity codes (HS codes) based on discussions and agreements with the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the List of goods and agreements with the Ministry of Finance on HS codes.

However, up to now, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has not yet published a list of scrap and waste with HS codes banned from import as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP mentioned above.

To determine goods as scrap waste, the Customs authority is currently basing on the concept stipulated in Article 3 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020; List of scrap permitted to be imported from abroad as raw materials for production in Decision No. 13/2023/QD-TTg dated May 22, 2023; List of hazardous waste, controlled industrial waste and ordinary industrial solid waste in Appendix III issued with Circular No. 02/2022/TT-BTNMT dated January 10, 2022 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection.

Based on legal regulations and through actual cases that have arisen, the General Department of Customs finds that, at present, there is not enough basis to determine whether imported and exported goods are scrap or waste according to environmental laws.

The reason is that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has not yet issued a List of scrap and waste with HS codes banned from import as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP, leading to no standards or regulations to determine which goods are scrap and waste; no agency or organization has been assigned to conduct the appraisal of whether goods are scrap or waste or not?...

The above shortcomings have caused customs authorities to encounter difficulties in determining imported goods as scrap and waste for 4 items, specifically:

HFO oil products:

Enterprises importing HFO350 oil declare it under many different names.

All businesses declare HS code 2710.19.90.

Coal ash products

Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. declared the imported goods as "Steel granules for cleaning steel surfaces", HS code 7205.10.00 and the customs authority took samples of the goods for analysis and classification. The classification result of the goods name is "Coal slag from coal combustion process", code 2621.90.90.

Crushed stone products from metallurgical slag

Do Sung Company and Kumgang Vina Company Limited declared the imported goods as: "Stone crushed from metallurgical slag used to mix with cement to produce washing machine load balancer", code 2517.20.00, imported from China.

Spray gun item for cleaning metal surfaces

During the process of handling customs procedures, the customs authority discovered that Tan Tai Loc Petroleum Services and Engineering Company Limited declared the goods as "Spraying beads, made of steel (PS Ball), used to clean metal surfaces, size 0.6mm-1.0mm-2.0mm. 100% new, origin: Korea: HS code: 7205.10.00" but after the customs authority took samples of the goods for analysis and classification, it determined that the goods were "Small grain slag (Sand slag) from the iron and steel smelting industry (with grain sizes as declared), with the main component being metal oxides, accounting for over 90%.

HS Code: 2618.00.00".

The customs authority has conducted a review on the Electronic Customs Data System and found that many enterprises have imported items with code 7205.10.00 but declared them with many different names: Iron abrasives, steel abrasives, stainless steel in granular form, stainless steel pellets in granular form, alloy pellets, spraying materials, steel granules, stainless steel sand... At the same time, enterprises also declared them for many different import purposes such as: cleaning the surface of metal products, cleaning ship hulls/polishing products, pitting stone surfaces, raw materials for stainless steel production, polishing and cleaning ceramic tile surfaces, used for casting and manufacturing metals....

Opinion of General Department of Customs

Through the above cases, the General Department of Customs finds that, in the process of exchanging to determine the nature of the goods, in the documents of the specialized agency of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Department of Environmental Pollution Control), there are cases where the guidance is unclear on whether the goods are scrap or waste, but there are also cases where there are clear opinions on whether the goods are waste. Therefore, to ensure that customs procedures are carried out in accordance with regulations, to avoid scrap, waste, and poor quality recycled products that pollute the environment when imported into Vietnam, the General Department of Customs requests the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to give specific opinions on:

Is the nature of the above imported goods (according to the declaration of the enterprise, the appraisal results of the appraisal organization as well as the analysis and classification results of the customs authority) waste scrap according to the provisions of the Law on Environmental Protection? In case there is not enough basis to determine the nature of the goods, we request that the Ministry clearly state the content that the customs authority needs to supplement or designate a competent unit to determine so that the customs authority can send samples for appraisal.

In the long term, it is recommended that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment soon provide guidance on the above contents and designate agencies and organizations to conduct appraisals of imported goods that are scrap and waste according to the provisions of the Law on Environmental Protection so that customs authorities have a basis to apply management policies in accordance with the provisions of law.

See text details here!

Source: https://congthuong.vn/hai-quan-yeu-cau-bo-tai-nguyen-va-moi-truong-dac-dinh-4-mat-hang-phe-lieu-chat-thai-cho-nhap-khau-348985.html