Hanoi (VNA) – The General Department ofVietnam Customs (GDVC) has ordered customs agencies in provinces and cities tointensify inspections to fight origin-related frauds, violations of intellectualproperty (IP) rights and illegal transport of import-export goods.

In a document sent to provincial and municipalcustoms agencies, the general department warned about the increase in tradefrauds in connection with goods labeling and IP rights.

The GDVC said competent forces have uncovered manycases in which imported goods were labeled “Made in Vietnam”, “Manufactured inVietnam”, “Originated in Vietnam”, or had their foreign labels replaced withsuch, with the purpose for consumption in the Vietnamese market.

Traders have takenadvantage of legal documents on not requiring sub-labels at customs clearance toimport goods and then do not attach sub-labels but change labels, packages andthe names of goods for domestic consumption.

The general department also detected the import ofgoods with counterfeit registered trademark; or the transport of counterfeitgoods, goods violating IP property rights or carrying fake Vietnamese originunder the name of transit.

For goods imported into Vietnam with the aim ofmaking use of special preferential taxrates under free trade agreements, importers used fake or invalid C/O to carryout customs procedures or declare false information on C/O.

Besides, a number of enterprises, includingforeign-invested ones, import raw materials, semi-finished products, componentsand spare parts for production, processing and assembly, but their products forexport do not undergo processing and manufacturing stages or undergo simpleprocessing, manufacturing and assembling stages that do not meet the origincriteria prescribed. However, they still label the products with Vietnameseorigin when exporting. Some enterprises imported goods with the aim of legalizinggoods’ dossiers or applying for C/O to give the goods Vietnamese origin, forexporting to the third country.

The GDVC instructed provincial and municipalcustoms agencies to inspect, supervise and control goods origin and labelling;infringement of IP rights and illegal transit of import and export goods inaccordance with legal documents.-VNA