Tuesday February 8, 2022
From January 17th to 19th 2022, the ARISE+ Vietnam Project together with the Department of International Cooperation (Ministry of Finance) co-organized a training course on “The transposition of Viet Nam’s tariff schedule from AHTN 2017 to AHTN 2022”. This is one of the activities in the Component 4 of the Project which objective is to improve capacity of government officials and researchers in Vietnam to understand and transpose tariff nomenclature, analyse trade statistics, and assess EVFTA implementation and impact.
Mr. Matthieu Penot delivered the opening speech at the training course
Mr. Matthieu Penot - Trade Cooperation Attaché of the European Union Delegation to Vietnam welcomed the participants in the name of the European Union as the sponsor of ARISE+ Viet Nam programme and in particular of this important event. He expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Finance and ARISE+ Viet Nam project for the excellent organization under the constraints of Covid19. “It is exactly these kind of important capacity buildings and trainings of government officials we envisaged when we planned for the ARISE+ Viet Nam Program, so I am very satisfied to see this activity been realized today”, he stated. He continued saying that “The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) and the implementation of new tariff commitments as well as the knowledge to be able to analyse statistical trade data are core topics of the EVFTA”.
Ms Linh introducing the participants in the technical agenda of the training course
Ms Linh, Head of Division of Bilateral Financial Integration Division opened the technical part of the training workshop. She welcomed the participants and praised the efforts undertaken to make this training happen with an international recognized speaker. She introduced the objectives and the benefits, the key role-players in the system, and the responsibilities cast upon each layer of Viet Nam administration in the successful implementation of EVFTA. Ms Linh highlighted the challenges arising from the implementation of HS-2022 and why is has become necessary to conduct a capacity building workshop on the eve of transposing AHTN-2017 to AHTN-2022.
Mr. Bernhardt opened the technical deliveries at the training course
The Team Leader of ARISE+ Viet Nam Mr Peter Bernhardt speaking after Ms Linh, thanked the MoF for its outstanding cooperation in the organization of this training. He showcased on a simple example such as pen, how difficult the classification exercise could be as HS Codes of Heading 96 englobes a variety of pens such as point pens; felt tipped and other porous-tipped pens and markers; fountain pens; stylograph pens and other pens; duplicating stylos; propelling or sliding pencils. He introduced the esteemed speaker and international expert in this matter Ms Tharaka. Mr. Tharaka Seneviratne is the lead lecturer of two-day training course which took place in Hanoi. Mr. Tharaka Seneviratne is former Additional Director General of Sri Lanka Customs and is World Customs Organization (WCO) Accredited Specialist Trainer in the Harmonized System Nomenclature since 2009.
Mr Tharaka during his presentation on HS codes
Government officials from related ministries departments participated the training courses including officials from Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Information and Communication, Ministry of Planning and Investment and the General Department of Customs, including Cam Pha border-gate and Yen Phong Industrial zone Management Sub-department of Customs.
Due to the complicated situation of the COVID-19 epidemic in Hanoi, most of the participants of the course attended via online meeting platform. The course covered general introductory topics about the Harmonized System Nomenclature (HS code) as foundation of the AHTN, major amendments of HS-2022 in relation to the EVFTA together with consequential amendments to the AHTN, and instruction and practicing the Transposition from AHTN 2017 to AHTN 2022. Participants also had the opportunity to discuss with the lecturer about options of tax rates after the tariff transposition and the challenges and remedial related to the EVFTA.
Ms. Truong Thanh Ha, Deputy Head of the Department of Bilateral Financial Integration, Department of International Cooperation (Ministry of Finance) said: “This is an important activity to help strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Finance Officials. We are in the process of transposing Vietnam's tariff schedule from AHTN2017 to AHTN2022, serving the process of developing legal documents to implement Vietnam's commitments in Free Trade Agreements, including the EVFTA. The contribution and presence of experienced international experts play a very important role for this activity.”
At the end of the course, participants received a certificate of completion of the course awarded by Mr. Peter Bernhardt - Team Leader of the ARISE+ Vietnam project.
To see agenda of the course, please click here.
