Laws of Vietnam

In furtherance of the Prime Minister’s Decision No.178/1999/QD-TTg of August 30, 1999 on the labeling of goods for domestic circulation and export as well as import goods, regarding specific goods items of the agriculture and rural development service, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued on July 17, 2000 guiding Circular No.75/2000/TT-BNN-KHCN.

To materialize the Prime Minister’s directing opinions in Official Dispatch No.304/CP-KTQD of April 18, 2001 on the promulgation of documents to guide the implementation of the goods labeling regulation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development hereby guides the labeling of commodity forest products, commodities processed from forest products, cereal grains and assorted farm produce seeds in packs.

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Scope of application:

Commodity forest products, commodities processed from forest products, cereal grains and assorted farm produce seeds in packs, which are made in Vietnam for domestic consumption and export, goods imported for sale on the Vietnamese market (except for those temporarily imported for re-export or those processed for foreign countries) must all be labeled and the labeling must be conducted in compliance with the Prime Minister’s Decision No.178/1999/QD-TTg of August 30, 1999 on the Regulation on labeling of goods for domestic circulation and export as well as import goods and the Trade Ministry’s Circular No.34/1999/TT-BTM of December 15, 1999 guiding the implementation of Decision No.178/1999/QD-TTg as well as this Circular’s guidance.

2. Goods mentioned in this Circular include:

a/ Commodity forest products and commodities processed from forest products:

- Processed forest products to be used as raw materials, such as: artificial boards (particle boards, fiber boards, plywood boards, planks, etc.) for domestic circulation, export or import;

- Sawn timber of all kinds (in cubes or bars), thin boards, sliced sheets, barked timber, etc., for export or import;

- Goods being finished products or product details processed from timber or non-timber forest products (bamboo of various kinds, rattan, etc.), such as: household wood furniture, builders’ carpentry, wood articles for exterior and interior decoration, special-use products (for sport gears, medical instruments, teaching aids, toys), fine-art articles;

- Non-timber forest products, raw or dried, whether or not processed, put up in packs: trunks, branches, leaves, bases, roots, tubers, blossoms, fruits, seeds, peels, oils, resins, essences.

b/ Goods being cereal grains and assorted farm produce seeds, including, rice, maize, wheat, kaoliang, barley, assorted peas and beans, sesame, etc., unprocessed, in packs and not used as sowing seeds.

3. Labeling methods:

a/ For goods put up in packs, the labeling shall be made by method of inscribing directly on the packing or printing on sheets, which shall then be firmly attached, pinned or stuck on the packing;

b/ For unpacked goods, the labeling shall be made by method of sticking labels directly on products or attaching labels to goods or inscribing labels on separate sheets to be handed to customers.

II. LABELING CONTENTS

1. Commodity forest products and commodities processed from forest products:

a/ Goods names:

- Their common names shall be inscribed;

- Goods names are allowed to be inscribed in combination with shapes, utility, size, names of raw materials, origins, trademarks (if any) of goods. For example: Ironwood, pine wood, 1.2 m-long school table; rattan basket, pine resin, ironwood chest, pine word chest, Thanh Hoa ironwood chest, etc.

b/ Names and addresses of organizations and individuals, hereinafter collectively referred to as merchants responsible for goods:

- In cases where merchants are those directly exploiting and selling forest products to market, merchants trade in commodity forest products and unprocessed forest products, merchants are establishments processing and trading in commodities processed from forest products, including preliminarily processed and finished products for consumption, they shall inscribe names and addresses of their establishments;

- In cases where commodity forest products and commodities processed from forest products are imported or sold by sale agents for foreign merchants, names of importing merchants or names of sale agents shall be inscribed.

c/ Goods quanta:

- For processed commodity forest products to be used as raw materials, their length x width x thickness in meter, centimeter or millimeter shall be inscribed; if goods are packed in lots or bales, their volume or size shall be additionally inscribed in cubic meter or square meter for each goods lot or bale;

- Goods being finished products or product details processed from timber or non-timber forest products, goods quantum shall be piece or set depending on each kind of goods. For finished products, their sizes being length x width x height shall be inscribed; for products details, their sizes being length x width x thickness shall be inscribed.

- For non-timber forest products (trunks, branches, leaves, tubers, roots, blossoms, fruits, seeds, peels, oils, resins, etc.) their quanta shall be inscribed under the guidance in the Trade Ministry’s Circular No. 34/1999/TT-BTM of December 15, 1999.

d/ Principal quality standards:

- For a commodity being sawn timber from the same plant species, the name of such species shall be inscribed. If it is from various plant species, the wood groups shall be inscribed;

- Commodities processed from non-timber forest products, assorted artificial boards, home wood furniture, builders’ carpentry, articles made of rattan and bamboo of various kinds, etc., the following commodity quality standards shall be inscribed: grade I, II, III, IV or A, B, C, D, if such commodities are subject to grading standards. Particularly for home wood furniture made of timber, apart from grades (I, II, III, IV or A, B, C, D), names of timber used for making such furniture must also be inscribed.

e/ Date of manufacture, expiry and preservation duration:

- For commodity forest products being artificial boards, home wood furniture, builders’ carpentry, articles made of bamboo or rattan of various kinds, etc., the month and year of manufacture thereof (except for commodities being non-timber forest products) shall be inscribed.

- For non-timber forest products in raw, dried, preliminarily processed or processed form, the day, month and year of exploitation or production must be clearly inscribed. For commodities with use deadlines, such deadlines must be inscribed. For commodities that need preservation, the preservation conditions must be inscribed.

f/ Commodity origin:

- If forest products and commodities processed from forest products are imported, the names of the exporting countries must be shown, for example: rubber wood from Cambodia;

- For non-timber forest products, only addresses at provinces or centrally-run cities where such products are exploited shall be inscribed, for example: cinnamon from Yen Bai province;

- For commodity forest products and commodities processed from forest products for export or import into Vietnam for consumption, the origin thereof must be inscribed. In cases where the origin of Vietnamese exports is requested by foreign customers not to be inscribed, the inscription thereof shall be exempt until the end of December 31, 2002.

2. For cereal grains and assorted farm produce seeds in packs:

a/ Commodity names:

- Names of cereals and farm produce shall be clearly inscribed in combination with their color or origin (if any). For example: rice CR 203, rice San Uu 63, hybrid maize LVN10, lotus peanut.

- For other cereal grains and farm produce seeds being local specialties, names of such goods may be followed by names of localities where they are produced, with a hyphen between them. For example: Tam thom rice - Hai Hau, lotus peanut - Nghe An;

- For cereal grains being special or peculiar commodities, the commodity names shall be inscribed first, which are followed by codes of breeds for producing such commodity, with a hyphen between them. For example: high-protein maize - HQ2000, high-protein rice - P6.

b/ Names and addresses of merchants responsible for commodities:

- For merchants producing cereal grains or farm produce and seeds directly selling their products, and trading or service merchants, they shall inscribe names and addresses of their organizations and individuals;

- If cereals are imported commodities or commodities sold by sale agents of foreign merchants, names of merchants responsible for commodities shall be the names of importing merchants or sale agents.

c/ Goods quanta:

For cereal grains, assorted farm produce seeds put up in packs, the commodity quantity being net weight in kilogram (kg) or gram (g) shall be inscribed.

d/ Quality standards:

- For cereal grains and assorted farm produce seeds put up in packs, quality standards shall be inscribed according to quality grade of I, II or III (if any) together with the principal quality standards. For example: grade-I maize;

- For other genetically modified cereal grains and farm produce seeds, the phrase "genetically modified product" must be inscribed, for the customers’ choice.

e/ Date of manufacture, expiry and preservation methods:

- Date of manufacture: The month and year of harvesting commodity products must be clearly inscribed on packing. For example: Produced in October 2001;

- Use deadlines: Day, month and year being deadlines for use must be clearly inscribed;

- Preservation methods: Conditions for preservation.

f/ Use purposes:

It must be inscribed on the packing that the packed grains are commercial products, not for seeding.

g/ Commodity origin:

Origin of export commodities or commodities imported for sale on the Vietnamese market must be inscribed. In cases where the origin of Vietnamese export commodities is requested by foreign customers not to be inscribed, the inscription thereof shall be exempt until the end of December 31, 2002.

III. ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

Merchants that produce commodity forest products and commodities processed from forest products, cereal grains and other farm produce seeds in packs attached with goods labels, which are allowed to be circulated and used in Vietnam, shall have to revise the labeling of their products under the Prime Minister’s Decision No.178/1999/QD-TTg of August 30, 1999 and Directive No.28/2000/CT-TTg of December 27, 2000, the Trade Ministry’s Circular No.34/1999/TT-BTM of December 15, 1999 and this Circular.

Merchants engaged in the import of forest products and commodities processed from forest products, cereal grains and other farm produce seeds in packs from foreign countries must notify suppliers of contents compulsory to be inscribed on labels of imported commodity products, in order to unify implementation methods.

This Circular takes effect as from January 1, 2002.

The previous regulations on labeling applicable to forest products, commodities processed from forest products, cereal grains and farm produce seeds in packs, which are contrary to this Circular, are hereby annulled.

Any difficulties or problems arising in the course of implementation should be promptly reported to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for appropriate amendments and supplements.

For the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
Vice Minister
NGUYEN VAN DANG