E-commerce has grown, allowing cross-border sales to skyrocket. Illustration.

Because there are no separate regulations on customs management policies and procedures for goods traded through cross-border e-commerce, goods exported and imported in this type of transaction frequently face numerous challenges.

Purchasing foreign goods is becoming increasingly convenient

Indeed, the rapid and robust growth of e-commerce is making it easier and more convenient to purchase goods, particularly foreign goods. Previously, when it came to purchase of imported goods, Vietnamese consumers had to either wait for businesses to import and redistribute them, or go abroad directly to search for and order them.

Currently, anyone can access billions of products from countless suppliers all over the world by simply visiting major e-commerce sites like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba. Cross-border e-commerce can take diverse forms. Consumers can make global purchases through websites, apps, social networks, or purchasing apps.

According to statistics from Trade's Vietnam E-commerce Report of the Ministry of Industry for 2023, 35% of consumers buy goods on foreign websites, and 43% buy goods from foreign sellers on Vietnam's e-commerce trading floor; 3.9% of e-commerce trading floors have stalls of foreign sellers, accounting for 4.7% of the aggregate stalls on the floor; and 7.8% of successful orders of foreign sellers on the e-commerce trading floor.

With the participation in a series of free trade agreements (FTAs), Vietnam's economy is becoming increasingly deeply integrated into the global economy. The content of e-commerce is also beginning to appear in the new generation FTAs that Vietnam has participated in, which will be a new engine of the Vietnamese economy, contributing to reconnecting the pandemic-battered cross-border supply chain, paving the way for products that are Vietnam's strengths to continue accessing to the international market.

A variety of issues need to be resolved

Even though e-commerce has grown significantly, the ineffectiveness of cross-border transactions has been hampered by the lack of separate regulations on management practices and customs procedures for goods transacted through e-commerce.

Nguyen Bac Hai, Deputy Director of the Customs Supervision and Management Department, discussed the difficulties in importing goods from cross-border e-commerce transactions. Photo: Do Doan

According to Mr. Nguyen Bac Hai, Deputy Director of the Customs Supervision and Management Department (under the General Department of Customs), these challenges involve the stages of customs procedures related to dossiers, risk assessment, and the pressure of goods clearance. Other difficulties lie in determining the customs value and performing specialized inspections.

“Due to the aforementioned issues, the Prime Minister has just approved the Scheme for the management of e-commerce activities for exports and imports in Decision No. 431/QD-TTg dated March 27, 2020, after realizing the need to reform customs management policies and procedures. The Ministry of Finance has given the responsibility of leading the development of a Decree on customs management of exported and imported goods transacted through e-commerce at the decision of approving the project. The Ministry of Finance has now submitted the draft to the Government for promulgation” said Mr.Hai.