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The General Department of Viet Nam Customs has the official document number 13650/TCHQ-CCHDH dated 11/11/2014 sent to Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the document number 13649/TCHQ-CCHDH sent to Hai Phong Customs Department to coordinate the deployment of the National Single Window (NSW) at the port of Hai Phong and facilitate enterprises who use the system.

Recently, the Ministry of Transportation has issued the Circular No. 49/2014/TT-BGTVT dated 15 October 2014 on provisions of safety examination of containers shipped through the port of Vietnam. Safety examination of containers includes: Check the safety certification plate of container and check the security status of the container.

To eliminate many documents in customs sets to cut administrative procedures, reduce time and costs for businesses, under the direction of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, customs authorities admitted that reducing customs papers is a heavy workload. However, apart from the most common papers for import, specified papers should be categorised: Certified by competent authorities. This is also the issue that local and central customs units discussed at a meeting that reviewed a draft circular on customs procedures, customs inspection, export duty and import duty.

According to the Vietnamese Trade Office in Egypt, some Egyptian importers often complain about the uneven quality of Vietnamese seafood. Some fails to pass food safety tests so customs clearance faces difficulties, resulting in more costs at the port, such as the costs of storage, refrigeration, etc. Egyptian importers have questioned about unstable offer prices; sometimes the price increases unreasonably. For that reason, the importers don’t pay up to receive the documents or let the cargo backlog at ports.

From Jan.01st.2015, the salt imported under HS heading 2501 in the tariff schedule issued by the Finance Ministry should meet the quality standards in accordance with standards and technical regulations on quality of imported salt. All shipments of imported salt should be tested and assessed in terms of quality. When shipments of salt to the border gate, the importer should contact with customs office in the border gate to make customs procedures, taking samples and storing the goods as prescribed by the customs authorities.

According to the Vietnam Customs Statistics, the total merchandise trade value between Vietnam and India in 2013 reached USD 5.23 billion, rose strongly by 32.7% in comparison to 2012. In which, export value was USD 2.9 billion, went up extremely by 61.6% and import value was USD 2.35 billion, increased by 8.9%. Notably, after facing with big gap in merchandise trade with India for 2recent years (accounted for 45% of Vietnam’s total export value to India), Vietnam has been in trade surplus for the first time in 2013. The surplus was recorded at USD 528 million

According to Vietnam Customs’ statistics, from the beginning to September of 2014, total merchandise trade between Vietnam and Lao went up strongly 37.3%, to USD 964 million in value terms. In which, the total export value was USD 330 million and the total import value was USD 634 million with the positive growth rate of 6.9% and 61.8% respectively. Main commodities exported from Vietnam to Laos include petroleum products; iron and steel… and the commodities of Laos imported mainly into Vietnam include wood and wooden products; rubber…

According to trade statistics of Vietnam Customs, in August of 2014, a 1.6% fall in total external merchandise turnover of Vietnam (which reached US dollars 25.47 billion) was recorded as compared to the result of a month earlier. In which, exports were up 2.8%, to US dollars 13.27 billion and imports were down 5.9%, to US dollars 12.2 billion. As a result, there was a US dollars 1.07 billion surplus in Vietnam’s trade balance in this month.

Currently, foreign companies are not allowed to conduct direct trade in Myanmar. Therefore, if foreign companies want to export their products to Myanmar, they must seek Myanmar partners with import and export licences to distribute goods. Licensed foreign direct investment (FDI) companies are only to import, not export, materials for domestic production.

Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP) may expand 15 percent and its exports to the European Union (EU) may rise by 30-40 percent when the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is signed. Vietnamese businesses are eager to enjoy advantages that the Vietnam - EU FTA, expected to be concluded by the end of 2014, will bring.