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On October 27, 2022, Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade promulgated Circular No.17/2022/TT-BCT to amend and supplement several articles of Circular No.32/2017/TT-BCT, a circular that provides guidelines for implementation regulations of Law on Chemicals. The Circular will take effect from December 22, 2022.
Earlier on October 17, Vietnam passed Decree No.82/2022/ND-CP to revise the existing Decree No.113/2017/ND-CP, which introduced changes in the List of Restricted Chemicals (Annex II). Companies are required to obtain a license before producing or trading chemicals in Annex II. (See more in ChemLinked's previous coverage)
The new Circular mainly covers updates to the rules on licensing, reporting, labelling, and transport. The highlights are summarized as follows:
License for producing or trading restricted chemicals
The Circular clarified the validity period for licenses for producing or trading restricted chemicals. A license issued after December 22, 2022 has a validity period of 5 years. For persistent organic pollutants (POPs), the license stays valid for 5 years or equals the validity period for POPs exemption registration specified in Decree No.08/2022/ND-CP, depending on whichever comes first. The validity period of a re-issued or adjusted license equals the remaining period of the issued license.
A license issued before December 22, 2022 shall continue to be used until December 22, 2027, or stays valid until the deadline for POPs exemption registration, depending on whichever comes first.
Annual reporting
The deadline for reporting was amended from January 15 to February 15. Organizations and individuals engaged in industrial chemical-related activities shall report chemical operations in the previous year to Vietnam Chemicals Agency through the National Chemical Database by the deadline. They should also take the responsibility to report when having chemical incidents or termination of chemical operations. It takes effect from December 22, 2023.
Goods labelling
The Circular adopts Decree No.111/2021/ND-CP (an amendment of Decree No. 43/2017/ND-CP) as the legal reference for compliance with goods labelling, which requires:
Name and address of manufacturers or importers responsible for the goods
Name of goods
Quantity of goods
Date of manufacture and expiry date
Origin of goods (in case the origin can not be identified, the final finishing stage such as "assembled in" or "mixed in" should be indicated on the label)
Ingredients of goods, including their quantities.
Technical specifications on warning information
Dangerous goods labelling
The Circular amends the reference for hazard pictograms from Appendix VII under Circular No.32/2017/TT-BCT to Appendix III under Decree No. 42/2020/ND-CP, which regulates the transportation of dangerous goods in Vietnam.
