Accordingly, from November 8, 2017, enterprises importing steel are no longer required to submit to the customs authority a Notice of Imported Goods Quality Inspection Results issued by the state steel-quality inspection authority in order to clear the goods. Steel quality management is instead carried out under regulations on declaration of applicable standards before steel products are placed on the market.

For steel classified under the HS codes specified in Appendix II of Joint Circular No. 58/2015/TTLT-BCT-BKHCN dated December 31, 2015, declaration of applicable standards is implemented as follows:

a/ Where an enterprise standard is used for the declaration, its technical requirements must not be lower than those prescribed in the corresponding Vietnamese national standard.

b/ Where no Vietnamese national standard is available, the enterprise standard must contain technical requirements no lower than those prescribed in the relevant international standard.

c/ Where there is no Vietnamese national standard, no standard of the exporting country and no international standard, the requirements prescribed in Clause 4, Article 3 of Joint Circular No. 58/2015/TTLT-BCT-BKHCN must be satisfied.

For steel classified under the HS codes specified in Appendix III of Joint Circular No. 58/2015/TTLT-BCT-BKHCN dated December 31, 2015, the corresponding Vietnamese national standard or the standard of the exporting country is used for the declaration.

For steel classified under the HS codes in Section 2 of Appendix III of Joint Circular No. 58/2015/TTLT-BCT-BKHCN dated December 31, 2015, importing enterprises are also no longer required to submit to customs a declaration of imported steel certified by the Heavy Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade or a copy of the certification of steel import demand issued by the Department of Industry and Trade.