New required licenses bring new sufferings to wood importers
27-10-2012 13:35:18+07:00
New required licenses bring new sufferings to wood importers
Wood importers have complained that the new regulation on the PRA (pest risk analysis) import plant quarantine certificate has put big difficulties for their operation.
Importers weep about new regulation
The wood importers in the central province of Ha Tinh have to go to Hanoi regularly to get the PRA import plant quarantine certificates from the Plant Protection Department for their consignments of wood imports. They have to show the certificates to customs agencies before getting the customs clearance.
The importers said that the currently valid documents promulgated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), including the latest one – Circular No. 39 dated August 13, 2012, do not mention the quarantine as compulsory thing. Therefore, they cannot understand why state management agencies still request them to present the certificates.
Tran Phat Dat, Chair of the Small and Medium Enterprise Association in Huong Khe district, who is also the Director of Quynh Nga Company, also said that he was so surprised when he was asked by the plant quarantine officers to go to Hanoi for the certificates, if I wanted to get the imports cleared from the Cha Lo border gate in Quang Binh province.
“The Decree No. 02 and Circulars No. 39 and 40 all do not stipulate that wood imports are the subjects that need to undergo pest risk tests. I also cannot see any provisions saying that we have to meet the quarantine department for certificates,” Dat said.
A wooden furniture manufacturer also said that he and other businesses have got puzzled with the new regulation.
Until the new regulation is set, the quarantine work had been done right at the border gate. Meanwhile, the new regulation stipulates that importers have to obtain the certificates from the quarantine department headquartered in Hanoi.
“It would take us some days and much money to go to Hanoi every time the new import consignments arrive,” he complained.
He went on to say that the new regulation has made it more burdensome for enterprises, which comes contrary to the policy of simplifying administrative procedures to help push up production and business.
What’s the quarantine certificate for?
The officers of the Cha Lo border gate said they themselves could not find the answers to businesses’ questions about the quarantine.
According to Cao Xuan Mai, the circular No. 39 clearly stipulates the subjects which must undergo PRA before they are imported to Vietnam. However, in referring to the regulations in the circular, enterprises believe that it is unreasonable to apply the regulations to the enterprises which have been importing wood from Laos.
The article No. 2 of the circular stipulates that only the products, imported to Vietnam for the first time, and the products with new origin sources would have to undergo PRA.
This means that the products which have been imported to Vietnam for a long time, and the imports come from the countries with no pest epidemics would have to have pest risk tested.
Dat said that in order to effectively control epidemics and prevent germs, state management agencies need to have deeper knowledge and better equipment to find out risks.
Meanwhile, it is unfeasible for the plant protection agency’s officials, who sit in their office in Hanoi, to verify the import consignments located thousands of kilometers far from Hanoi. And once a regulation is unfeasible, it needs to be reconsidered.
vietnamnet
