At the working session, the two sides discussed the efforts of the Vietnam Customs in facilitating trade in general and implementing the commitments of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh thanked Carsten Schittek, Counselor of the EU Delegation to Vietnam and his colleagues for taking the time to participate in the meeting as suggested by the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh emphasised that economic - trade relations between Vietnam and the EU are growing rapidly, especially since the EVFTA officially took effect on August 1, 2020. After one year of its implementation, the two-way import and export trade has grown despite the negative impact of the pandemic.
Over recent times, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has synchronously implemented many solutions to modernise and simplify customs procedures, improve quality and operational efficiency, and shorten goods clearance time, significantly contributing to trade facilitation, better serving the people and business community.
In the process of implementing trade facilitation measures, Vietnam’s Customs sector has received a lot of support from international organisations. In Vietnam, the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GATF) supports the customs clearance guarantee mechanism and most recently the US Agency for International Development (USAID) with the Trade Facilitation Project (TFP) have contributed.
Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh wishes to receive timely comments from the European Union to further improve customs modernization reform and trade facilitation. Timely settlement of inadequacies and difficulties arising is essential in order to promote the facilitation of trade in goods and trade between Vietnam and the EU.
Discussing issues related to trade facilitation, Carsten Schittek, Counselor of the EU Delegation to Vietnam acknowledged and highly lauded the efforts of Vietnam’s Customs in promoting and facilitating the customs clearance of goods in general and specifically that between Vietnam and the European Union in particular.
Deputy Director General Mai Xuan Thanh expressed his wish that the EU continue to provide timely comments to further improve the reform and modernisation of customs procedures, aiming at promoting the facilitation of trade in goods between Vietnam and the EU.
Discussing issues related to trade facilitation, Carsten Schittek highly appreciated the efforts of Vietnam Customs in promoting and facilitate customs clearance in general and customs clearance between Vietnam and the EU in particular.
