More than 500 tariff lines imported from Cuba have been removed since 2019

The Ministry of Finance is seeking wide opinions on Vietnam's Special Preferential Import Tariff for the implementation of the Vietnam-Cuba Trade Agreement for the period of 2019-2022.Open 99.5%
The first content proposed by the Ministry of Finance is the principle of converting Vietnam's tariff list of goods committed to Cuba from AHTN2012 to AHTN2017. Vietnam's commitment in this Agreement is built on the basis of AHTN2012. Vietnam offers preferential treatment to Cuba for 475 goods lines, of which 431 items eliminate tariffs as soon as the Agreement comes into effect. The scope of liberalization accounts for nearly 100% of turnover.
In order to implement the Agreement in the Agreement, to comply with the ASEAN Customs Agreement concerning the application of the ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Schedule (AHTN) of the 2017 version of ASEAN and the Harmonized List of Goods Description and Codification With the 2017 version of the World Customs Organization, the Ministry of Finance has converted the tariff of the Agreement from the AHTN 2012 to AHTN 2017 as a basis for promulgating Vietnam's special preferential import tariff for the period. paragraph 2019-2022.
Due to changing the List from the AHTN 2012 to AHTN 2017, the tariff has 34 lines of AHTN2017 at the 8-digit level affected by the change of the product code, the split-line. These are the lines of goods from the product lines according to the AHTN2012 with the tax rate committed to Cuba under the list of EIF (eliminating tariffs as soon as the Agreement comes into effect) and the lines of goods not included in the orange list. associated with Cuba.
For these lines, because the conversion of HS code in the Agreement does not have specific guidelines, the Ministry of Finance has set the tax rate according to the principle of taking the tax rate of the ANTN2012 line with the lowest tax rate (eliminating tariffs) as soon as the Agreement entered into force for 34 lines of AHTN2017) for the purpose of not reducing the tax incentives provided in Annex 2-B on the Reduction and / or Elimination of Taxes under the Agreement, ensuring the guidance on tax conversion According to WTO rules, at the same time ensure feasibility in implementation. This principle is based on the following grounds: Cuba is a special partner; import and export turnover from Cuba for almost negligible gross product lines and in particular of the Schedule for implementation of Vietnam's commitment tariff rate in the Agreement is the Partial Schedule (including only 563 tariff lines); ensuring simplicity, transparency, facilitating taxpayers and implementing tax administrative procedure reforms and applying uniform tax rates on goods with the same nature, structure, utility and Similar technical features.
In general, after making the transition from the AHTN List 2012 to AHTN 2017, Vietnam gave Cuba the opening level of commodity market, accounting for 99.5% of the tariff lines, equivalent to the import value of 5, 66 million USD.
Import tax revenue from Cuba market of Vietnam in 2017 reached about VND 2.1 billion, an increase of 200% compared to the same period in 2016, but decreased to 50% to about VND 1 billion in 2018. Similarly, Value added tax revenue increased from about 5.85 million in 2016 to about 10.3 million in 2017 (76%) and decreased to 7.23 billion in 2018 (about 30%). Special sales tax increased from 0.6 billion in 2016 to about 1.54 billion in 2017 (about 155%) and dropped to 1.46 billion in 2018 (down 5.5%). The total value of imports from Cuba in 2018 decreased by 28% compared to 2017, focusing mainly on the category of "Pharmaceuticals" (down 26%) although the preferential import tax for 2018 was 0%. However, the revenue from import tax decreased sharply mainly from "Other food products" (code 2106.90.70, 2106.90.99) and "Tobacco raw materials" (code 2402.10.00) decreased by 28% due to Import turnover of these two product groups decreased.
Revenue reduction rate of 22%
In terms of tax rates and tax rates for Vietnam - Cuba, it is built on the principle of complying with commitments under Vietnam's Roadmap for Tariff Reduction stipulated in the Agreement on Trade in Goods between Vietnam and Cuba. Overall, the 2017 AHTN Tariff for the period 2018-2022 includes 563 AHTN2017 tariff lines at 8-digit level. The tariff reduction schedule in the Tariff is applicable to four stages: From date effective to December 31, 2019; from 1/1/2020 to 31/12/2020; from 1/1/2021 to 31/12/2021; from 1/1/2022 to 31/12/2022.
According to the new structure of the Tariff attached to the draft Decree, the number of tariff lines under the committed schedules under the 2017 AHTN is 563 tariff lines with 514 tariff lines removed immediately after the Agreement takes effect, accounting for 91.3% ; 46 tariff lines are reduced according to the roadmap, accounting for 8.2% and 3 tariff lines maintain the basic tax rate, accounting for 0.5%.
Assessing the impact on revenues, representatives of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Finance said that in the period from 2019 to 2022, the average tax rate in the Vietnam-Cuba Trade Agreement gradually decreased. from 3.43% in 2019 to 2.12% in 2022. Assuming the import turnover in 2019 and the years 2020-2022 is unchanged compared to 2018 and the rate of using the certificate of origin of Vietnamese goods - Cuba in the period of 2019-2022 does not change over the years, the special preferential tariff reduction of Vietnam in the Vietnam-Cuba Trade Agreement will lead to a reduction in revenues from import activities by partners. On that basis, if the growth rate of import turnover from partners and the percentage of using certificates of origin are actually increased year by year, it will be sufficient to offset the reduction of revenue from import activities according to the stated partner The above is expected to lead to an increase in revenue from import activities and vice versa will lead to a reduction in revenue.
Assuming 35% preferential utilization rate of Vietnamese and Cuban goods origin is a high utilization rate compared to the average utilization of preferential rates in 2016 and 2017 free trade agreements, at Therefore, it is estimated that the import tax of 2019 will reach VND 754.95 million and gradually decrease in the following years. By 2022, the estimated reduction of import tax collection is VND 234.8 million. And the average import tax reduction rate for the period of 2019-2022 is 22%.
The trade agreement between the Government of Vietnam and the Cuban Government was signed on November 9, 2018 after two years of negotiations. This Agreement replaces the Agreement between the two Governments on trade exchange and other forms of economic cooperation signed on April 8, 1996. On November 7, 2018, the Government issued Resolution No. 136 / NQ-CP on signing the Trade Agreement between Vietnam and Cuba. To date, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is leading the implementation of procedures for approving this Agreement.
According to Hai Quan Online