VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Register (VR), the national registration agency, has requested enterprises to have sample cars of every consignment of import cars to test their safety. This has raised a wave of anger among automobile manufacturers and distributors.

The enterprises complained that they have been requested to have sample cars of every import consignment tested, even though VR has examined and granted quality certificates to the consignments of cars imported before.

The new requirement would be applied to the car imports under the mode of complete built units (CBU).

The automobile manufacturers said the imports to Vietnam all are the global models which undergo necessary tests in foreign countries before they enter Vietnam.

The imports only have some minor differences with the tested global models in terms of interior decoration, or steering wheels, which have been modified to fit the taste of the local consumers and make it easier to adapt to the traffic conditions in Vietnam.

Therefore, the manufacturers believe that no need to test and certify the car models which have undergone tests already.

A businessman has affirmed that the VR’s request is unreasonable if referring to the Circular No. 31 dated in 2011, which stipulates that no need to test the sample vehicles of the next consignments of imports which are the same models with the previous imports examined and certified by state management agencies.

The businessman went on to say that the new requirement would put another big difficulty for car distributors, because it would take them more time and money to follow the formality. Meanwhile, customers would have to wait more time for the deliveries, which makes it more difficult to sell cars in the context of the low demand.

Meanwhile, VR, explaining its new decision, said it’s necessary to tighten the control over the imports after it discovered a lot of trade frauds.

The registration agency said that some automobile joint ventures in Vietnam imported CBU picks up with double cabins bearing the brands of Isuzu Dmax, Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux or Nissan Navara, while the documents about the imports did not show that the models were approved by competent agencies in foreign countries.

This might be because the manufacturers had to undergo too complicated procedures in the countries. Therefore, the manufacturers skipped the procedures and then dodged the Vietnamese laws to bring the car models to Vietnam, which may have the quality lower than the quality of the cars on sale on the foreign markets.

Therefore, VR believes that it needs to test the sample cars of every new consignment of imports, while it would not accept the certificates granted to the previous import consignments, even though the importers said the imports were the same.

VR also said that there are not enough reasons to affirm that the quality of the different consignments of imports is exactly the same.

The noteworthy thing is that VR said it discovered the trade frauds after the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued the Circular No. 20 which tightens the car imports.

Meanwhile, the explanation by VR has been described by automobile manufacturers as “unacceptable.” They believe that VR, an agency of the Ministry of Transport, by setting up the new requirement, wants to join forces with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to restrict the car imports, a part of the plan to reducing the trade deficit.

“It’s unclear if VR sets the requirement just to protect consumers, or because it wants to run the newly invested vehicle emission testing center worth 10 million euros at full capacity,” a car dealer said.

Compiled by C. V