Illustration photo: H.Thọ
ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) was signed by member states on 26 February 2009 in the 14th ASEAN Summit in Cha-Am, Thailand. Accordingly, Vietnam will have to basically complete ASEAN tariff elimination in 2015, with only 7% of tariff lines are allowed to be flexible to 2018.
To implement the commitments of Vietnam in ATIGA for the period 2015-18, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular 165/2014/TT-BTC dated 14 November 2014 prescribing ASEAN special preferential import tariff for the period 2015-18.
Up to 2015, Vietnam will cut further 1,715 tariff lines from the current tax rate of 5% to zero, in which about 90% of tariff lines with 0% tax rate (in AHTN2012), and 97% of tariff lines to 0% by 2018. In addition, about 3% of tariff lines in ATIGA are excluded from tariff elimination commitments, including sensitive agricultural commodities (to be allowed to maintain the rate at 5%: poultry, chicken, eggs, citrus fruits, rice, brown rice, processed meats, sugar).
1. Group of items in categories of flexible 7%
Total number of tariff lines to be added to the list of flexible items to 2018 is 669 lines, including sensitive items which require a longer route for protection such as steel, paper, cloth, apparel, automotive, automotive spare parts, machinery, construction materials, furniture ...
2. Commodity groups with particular route
Among the group of flexible 7% to 2018, in addition to the usual items with ATIGA tax rate greater than 0% in 2014 and down to 0% in 2018, there are two groups of particularly sensitive commodities in ASEAN that we have negotiated and are implementing particular roadmap of tax cuts, including automobiles - motorcycles and tobacco products.
+ Roadmap for automobiles - motorcycles
Roadmap for tax cuts for cars, motorbikes as follows:
Import tax | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
ATIGA | 50% | 50% | 40% | 30% | 0% |
+ Roadmap for tobacco
Temporarily, tobacco items of Vietnam still remains in the list of exclusions, the MFN tariff is applicable for this item.