The impact of TPP seen from the chapter on Customs Management and Trade Facilitation

One of the strongest critics of TPP is that it is designed to benefit large multinational companies at the expense of workers, consumers, the environment and small and medium-sized businesses. The TPP negotiation process takes place behind closed doors with the negotiating content prepared by (or in consultation with) multinational companies and not announced until the TPP negotiations are completed.

However, the chapter on Customs Management and Trade Facilitation (referred to in this article as the Customs chapter) shows that in fact, if viewed from the perspective of supporting multilateral trade flows, TPP will greatly help small and medium-sized enterprises, including merchants, in member countries, thereby contributing to creating more jobs and improving common prosperity for member countries.

For small and medium-sized enterprises in general, implementing customs processes and procedures is always a nightmare. Due to limitations in financial capacity and scale, they do not have specialized staff who are customs experts, so they always have to grope through a forest of procedures and requirements with countless costs and damages, both named and unnamed, arising. Therefore, if customs processes and procedures are simplified, fast, convenient, transparent, and unified with trading partner countries... then commercial goods from the place of production will be quickly circulated to consumer markets with the fastest time and lowest cost. Conversely, unified customs processes and procedures among partner countries will also help with customs managementmore convenient while ensuring national security and public safety.

Recognizing that transparency and ease of understanding of customs procedures are fundamental for international trade to develop effectively, the first provision that TPP member countries agreed on in the Customs chapter is a provision for member countries to ensure that their customs procedures are transparent, consistent and predictable.

In this direction, member countries must publish customs regulations, laws and procedures online, and in English if possible, so that anyone who needs them can easily access these documents. They will also have to announce contact points to be ready to answer questions from businesses.

Member countries agree in the Customs chapter to minimize customs clearance times, and to the extent possible, within 48 hours after the goods requiring customs clearance have arrived at the border gate. To avoid delays, etc. due to customs officials not yet deciding on the duty and fee to be paid, this chapter allows goods to be cleared based on a deposit and/or advance payment of duty as required by customs (and then allows the authority of the importing country to reconsider this duty).

To minimize uncertainty related to customs clearance of goods for merchants, the Customs chapter requires the importing country, if requested by the merchant, to provide information before the merchant ships goods to the importing country, on the code, type of goods of that merchant, and whether their goods meet the conditions for TPP preferential tariffs. The provision of this information must be completed within 150 days of receipt of the request, and the information provided must be valid for 3 years.

Recognizing the importance of fast delivery time to enhance the competitiveness of products and businesses, the Customs chapter stipulates that importing countries must quickly and promptly clear customs for express goods by minimizing and simplifying customs clearance procedures. Because express delivery goods are diverse in value, shape and size, member countries agree to remove all existing restrictions on weight and value in customs clearance of express delivery goods. Importing countries are also not allowed to charge extra fees for express delivery goods with a value less than the prescribed minimum level to speed up customs clearance and reduce procedures.

Regarding the sanctioning of customs violations, the Customs chapter stipulates that this fine must be predictable and not at an excessive level (fine the right person, the right (level) of violation; the fine must be calculated on the basis of no conflict of interest in setting the fine and collecting fines; the fine must take into account the level of self-awareness and sincerity of the violator before the violation is discovered...). It can be seen that these principles on sanctioning customs violations are a new point. of TPP compared to current free trade agreements. Thanks to that, merchants are not punished unfairly, unjustly, and excessively.

In addition, the Customs chapter also mentions customs coordination and assistance between countries such as providing and sharing information when investigating illegal actions, to ensure effective customs operations, not allowing the benefits of TPP to be unfairly benefited by an entity outside the bloc.

In summary, the customs obligations specified in the Customs chapter of the TPP, if seriously implemented, will strongly promote trade flows between member countries, and beneficiaries will include small and medium-sized enterprises and workers and farmers when their products will be consumed more in import markets in the bloc.

TS. Phan Minh Ngoc

According to Young Intellectuals