On March 27, 2024, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) released Decree 33/2024/ND-CP Implementing the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction. The new regulation shall take effect on May 19, 2024 and replaces the existing Decree 38/2014/ND-CP.
It has been 10 years since Vietnam implemented the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) through Decree No.38/2014/ND-CP, which has achieved great progress in the prohibition of chemical weapons under the CWC terms. However, there are still limitations and problems revealed during the enforcement in practice due to changes in economic and societal conditions, which need to be further addressed by amending the Decree.
Given this situation, Decree 33/2024/ND-CP was developed and submitted to the Government for promulgation. To ensure the efficient implementation of the decree's provisions across various government agencies and businesses, MoIT also organized a conference specifically aimed at disseminating the provisions outlined in Decree 33/2024/ND-CP.
The new Decree has basically inherited provisions of Decree 38/2014/ND-CP, the major revisions are highlighted below:
Supplement regulations on the exemption for import and export licenses for Schedule 2 and Schedule 3 chemicals. The exemption threshold is 1% (the lowest threshold that must be declared in accordance with the Convention)
Supplement regulations that in case organizations and individuals import/export Schedule chemicals for business purposes, they must be granted a permit before carrying out import/export procedures.
Adjust the unified deadline for annual declaration of the activities of Schedule chemicals in the previous year and annual declaration of the plan for the following year as February 15
Supplement reporting sheet templates for Schedule chemicals, DOC, DOC-PSF chemicals through the National Chemical Database
Supplement regulations on the inspection and examination of establishments producing, trading, using and storing Schedule chemicals, DOC, DOC-PSF chemicals to strengthen dissemination of the CWC provisions and support training within the establishments
The official document in Vietnamese can be accessed here.
