THE GOVERNMENT
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SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM
Independence – Freedom – Happiness
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No. 154/2018/ND-CP

Hanoi, November 09, 2018

DECREE

Amending, supplementing and repealing a number of regulations on investment and business conditions in sectors under the state management of the Ministry of Science and Technology and certain regulations on specialized inspection

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on Investment dated November 26, 2014 and the Law amending and supplementing Article 6 and Appendix 4 on the list of conditional business lines of the Law on Investment dated November 22, 2016;

Pursuant to the Law on Intellectual Property dated November 29, 2005 and the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property dated June 19, 2009;

Pursuant to the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations dated June 29, 2006;

Pursuant to the Law on Product and Goods Quality dated November 21, 2007;

Pursuant to the Law on Measurement dated November 11, 2011;

At the proposal of the Minister of Science and Technology;

The Government promulgates this Decree amending, supplementing and repealing a number of regulations on investment and business conditions in sectors under the state management of the Ministry of Science and Technology and certain regulations on specialized inspection.

Article 1

Clause 2 Article 42 of Decree No. 105/2006/ND-CP dated September 22, 2006, as amended by Decree No. 119/2010/ND-CP, is amended as follows: “2. An intellectual property assessment organization may operate only when it has at least one intellectual property assessor.”

Article 2

A number of provisions of Decree No. 105/2016/ND-CP on operational conditions for organizations performing verification, calibration and testing of measuring instruments and measurement standards are amended, supplemented or repealed. Key amendments include: repeal of Point a Clause 2 and Clause 5 Article 3; amendments to conditions on measurement standards, equipment, environmental conditions, technical procedures, technical personnel, management systems under TCVN ISO/IEC 17025, designation requirements for group-2 measuring instruments, and the template in Appendix I.

Article 3

A number of provisions of Decree No. 107/2016/ND-CP on business conditions for conformity assessment services are amended, supplemented or repealed. Key contents include: documentation for testing, inspection, certification and accreditation organizations whose registered scopes are broader than accredited or certified scopes; experience requirements for inspectors and certification experts; conditions for accreditation bodies; minimum six-month waiting period before re-application after revocation; and replacement of Templates No. 01, 02, 03, 10 and 12 by Appendix II of this Decree.

Article 4

A number of provisions of Decree No. 132/2008/ND-CP, as amended by Decree No. 74/2018/ND-CP, are amended and supplemented. Of particular relevance to import operations, importers must register state quality inspection for imported goods and commit that the goods conform to applicable technical regulations and declared standards. The dossier may include copies of the contract, packing list, bill of lading, invoice, customs declaration if available, quality certificates or test results from the exporting country if available, certificate of origin if available, images or descriptions of goods showing mandatory label contents and supplementary labels if the original label is insufficient, and CFS if available. Importers are legally responsible for the quality of imported goods.

The Decree also amends exemptions for temporarily imported goods for trade fairs, and goods, materials, equipment and machinery temporarily imported for re-export and not consumed or used in Viet Nam. It establishes a mechanism for reduced or exempted quality inspection of imported group-2 goods after three consecutive imports with conformity assessment results, a two-year exemption confirmation, a three-month reporting obligation during the exemption period, post-inspection and suspension of exemption where non-conformity is detected. It also provides for temporary designation of testing organizations for six months and amends templates in Appendix III.

Article 5

Decree No. 87/2016/ND-CP dated July 01, 2016 on business conditions for motorcycle and moped helmets is repealed.

Article 6

Transitional provisions: conformity assessment organizations that have been granted certificates of registration may continue operating until the expiry date stated in such certificates. Where a conformity assessment organization adds registered operational fields, it must satisfy the conditions set out in this Decree.

Article 7

This Decree takes effect from the date of signing. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of Government-attached agencies and chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees are responsible for implementation.

ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT
PRIME MINISTER

Nguyen Xuan Phuc

APPENDIX I

Amending Template No. 02 attached to Decree No. 105/2016/ND-CP. The template is the report on technical facilities, equipment and personnel, including: list of verification/calibration/testing procedures; list of measurement standards and instruments; environmental conditions; list of technical personnel; accompanying copies of certificates and training documents.

APPENDIX II

Replacing Templates No. 01, 02, 03, 10 and 12 attached to Decree No. 107/2016/ND-CP. The templates cover: application for registration of certification/testing/inspection/verification activities; list of assessors, testing personnel, inspectors and verification personnel; summary of assessment/inspection experience; certificate of registration of conformity assessment activities; and list of lead assessors, assessors and technical experts of an accreditation body.

APPENDIX III

Amending and supplementing Templates No. 01, 04 and 08 attached to Decree No. 74/2018/ND-CP. The templates cover: registration for state quality inspection of imported goods; application for designation of conformity assessment activities; and decision on designation of a testing/certification/inspection/verification organization.

For imported goods, Template No. 01 requires importer information, goods name, brand, type, technical characteristics, origin, manufacturer, quantity, import checkpoint, import time, storage location and import dossier, including contract, packing list, conformity certificate or quality certificate/inspection certificate, management system certificate if any, invoice, bill of lading, customs declaration if any, C/O if any, CFS if any, images or goods description and supplementary labels if the original label is incomplete.