Vietnam, Netherlands exchange MoU on customs cooperation

Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung and Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Kees van Baar on November 2 exchanged the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the implementation of the Vietnam-Netherlands agreement on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters.
Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung (R) and Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Kees van Baar on November 2 exchange the MoU. (Photo: baochinhphu.vn)
Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung (R) and Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Kees van Baar on November 2 exchange the MoU. (Photo: baochinhphu.vn)

The exchange of the deal was witnessed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte who is on an official visit to Vietnam.

The agreement was signed during Prime Minister Mark Rutte's visit to Vietnam in 2019. An article on the agreement states that customs offices of the two countries will together decide on detailed arrangements within the framework of the agreement to facilitate the implementation.

On that basis, the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the Customs Administration of the Netherlands negotiated and then completed negotiations and domestic legal procedures to sign the cooperation pact on the occasion of the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries and more specifically, on the occasion of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's official visit to Vietnam.

The Customs Administration of the Netherlands is one of the partners that have regularly cooperated and assisted the General Department of Vietnam Customs. The two sides have organised activities to exchange experiences in customs management at seaports, risk management, and customs management at airports.

The two sides have also closely coordinated in providing and verifying information to control and combat smuggling.

In the coming time, within the framework of their cooperation, they will strengthen coordination in information sharing, e-commerce, green customs, digital transformation, customs inspection/supervision of goods requiring intellectual property protection; goods customs value, and origin.

The two sides expressed their confidence that with the signed cooperation documents, their cooperation will generate practical results suitable to their strengths and issues of mutual interest.

It is expected that at the end of November, a high-level delegation of the Customs Administration of the Netherlands will visit Vietnam.

VNA