According to Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam - Deputy Director of Vietnam SPS Office, the communication about SPS warnings should avoid providing incomplete information, leading to easy exploitation of unfair competition in trade, affecting businesses and the reputation of Vietnamese agricultural products and food.
Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of SPS Vietnam Office.
Basically, Vietnamese agricultural products and food comply very well with SPS regulations.
Sir, Vietnam is currently a major agricultural exporter, ensuring food safety procedures is always our concern. However, in the process of exporting goods, it is inevitable that some shipments will be warned about food safety by foreign markets. As an agency assigned to provide SPS information and food safety warnings in import markets, how is this procedure currently implemented by the Vietnam SPS Office?
- The unit assigned by the Prime Minister and the Minister to be the national focal point for notification and enquiry point on Vietnam's sanitary and phytosanitary measures; focal point for implementing transparency obligations as required by the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements that Vietnam participates in such as: CPTPP, RCEP, EVFTA, UKVFTA...; request WTO member countries to provide information on measures, risk assessment procedures, inspection, examination, approval procedures and other related issues on food safety and phytosanitary measures (SPS).
In performing its assigned tasks, upon receiving a notification of a draft SPS measure from a WTO Member, the Vietnam SPS Office will translate the summary and send it to competent authorities in the technical support network (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: Plant Protection Department, Department of Animal Health, Department of Livestock Production, Department of Fisheries, Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development; Ministry of Health: Department of Food Safety; Ministry of Industry and Trade: Department of Import and Export; National Committee for Standards, Metrology and Quality: Vietnam TBT Office), Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development of provinces/cities, associations, and industries to collect comments.
Then, it will be compiled and sent to the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization's SPS Committee. For draft SPS measure notifications that may affect Vietnam's agricultural and food exports, further analysis will be conducted and recommendations will be made to specialized agencies and producers (cooperatives, businesses, etc.) to proactively respond to market changes.
Regarding warnings that Vietnamese agricultural products violate SPS regulations of import markets, the Vietnam SPS Office will process and clarify basic information of the warning, including:
- Notice date
- National warning
- Product type
- Warning content
- Danger
- Level of violation (not serious, risk, serious risk, serious)
- Handling measures (notifying the manufacturer, temporarily holding at the border gate, recalling or destroying the product...)
- Exporting enterprise, importing enterprise, shipment code, weight...
The above information is transferred to the competent authorities for traceability processing according to regulations.
Periodically, every 6 months, summarize the results of handling warnings from competent authorities to report to the Ministry's leaders and recommend solutions.
Not only is it tasked with notifying draft SPS measures of WTO members and providing warnings about food safety quality, in fact, in recent times, SPS has conducted information and dissemination campaigns about regulations of import markets to people and businesses. Could you elaborate on this?
- Transparency of information on food safety and animal and plant disease safety (SPS) of WTO members is a commitment under the SPS Agreement and commitments in FTAs that Vietnam participates in. Every year, the Vietnam SPS Office coordinates with technical support units, research institutes, associations, industries, and media agencies to organize many conferences and seminars in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and key raw material areas to update information on SPS measures of key markets, and guide cooperatives and businesses on solutions to comply with SPS regulations of the market.
The Vietnam SPS Office also accompanies the Ministry's specialized agencies, Forum 970, units of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Science and Technology, Inter-sectoral Steering Committee for International Economic Integration, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Industry and Trade, and Industry Associations in updating and disseminating SPS regulations to relevant parties.
At the conferences, the parties discussed and resolved difficulties and obstacles for producers and businesses in complying with market regulations, and at the same time advised the Ministry on timely solutions.
The results show that basically, Vietnamese agricultural products and food have complied very well with the SPS regulations of the import market; there have been many changes in the awareness of the community, businesses and stakeholders about compliance with the SPS regulations of the import market and improving the quality of Vietnamese agricultural products and food in the international market.
Exported durians are gathered at a fruit purchasing facility in Tan Phu town, Tan Phu district, Dong Nai province. Photo: Hong Dat
Avoid providing incomplete information that can lead to unfair competition in commerce.
Recently, there have been some opinions that information and warnings must be specific, avoid being general, and need to classify the warning level for violations (if any) of Vietnamese agricultural products exported, to avoid being exploited by competitors to compete unfairly with each other. How can you explain this opinion?
-As I have analyzed above, the warning information sent by the Vietnam SPS Office to the competent authorities (Plant Protection Department, Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development, Import-Export Department) is very specific according to the notification of the importing country, including the recommendations of the importing country.
In the conference program, we provided sufficient information about warnings, ensuring transparency and objectivity with basic information: the number of warnings by industry, with analysis by hazards, analysis by level of violation.... With the aim of promptly providing information and orienting solutions for all relevant parties to make appropriate adjustments, especially avoiding risks for businesses when exporting large quantities of goods without understanding market regulations, leading to product recall or destruction.
We also need to note that the communication about the warning must reflect sufficient information at the conference on February 24, 2025 from updating SPS regulations, warning status, causes and solutions. Avoid providing incomplete information leading to easy exploitation of unfair competition in trade, affecting businesses and the reputation of Vietnamese agricultural products and food.
With current regulations, in the coming time, will SPS classify the risk level to issue warnings of violations (if any) for each type of agricultural product, sir? And to make the warnings transparent, what do we need to do?
- Food safety and animal and plant disease safety (SPS) are particularly important issues in the production and trade of agricultural products and food. This is an issue of protecting the health of consumers and the health of animals and plants. Depending on the level of violation, each WTO member classifies different levels of violation.
For example, EU regulations have 4 levels of violations: non-serious, risk of risk, serious risk, serious. Upon receiving the EU warning, the Vietnam SPS Office classified the level of violation with warnings for each specific product to send to the competent authority.
In the coming time, it is necessary to build a rapid warning system on Food Safety and Animal and Plant Disease Safety (SPS), which can be referred to the EU warning system. At that time, the warning information will be guaranteed to be public, with warning control according to the level of violation, businesses will proactively update information, avoid risks when exporting, and at the same time ensure trade security, contributing to building the reputation of Vietnamese agricultural products and food.
Thank you!
Source: https://danviet.vn/pho-giam-doc-van-phong-sps-viet-nam-truyen-thong-ve-canh-bao-sps-phai-phan-anh-du-thong-tin-tranh-bi-loi-dung-20250301094815687.htm
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