Ministry to prune import duties on textile goods

14 Mar '08

2 min read

The Government of Vietnam has asked the Ministry of Finance, Industry and Trade to cut down import duties on several goods as a policy to meet its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

According to the contract inked with WTO, Vietnam needs to reduce import duties on roughly 3,800 tax lines this year.

However, in the coming year, the country will need to cut import duties on about 2,000 items by around 2 percent.

Vietnam became WTO member in January last year and since then it is committed to slash taxes on 10,689 imported goods with an average cut of about 4 percent. A complete implementation of the scheme will take about five to seven years.

The agreement with WTO requires Vietnam to reduce import taxes on farming products from 25.2 to 21 per cent while for non-farming products, taxes must drop from 16.1 to 12.6 percent.

So far, Vietnam has trimmed duties on more than 1,800 tax lines, of which a major chunk of the products belong to textiles among others. Gold, gemstones and footwear will also come under tax reduction scheme.

The Government has also urged the Ministry of Finance, Industry and Trade to evaluate prices of goods in line with the market to encourage healthy competition and prevent monopolization.

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