The Prime Minister has signed and issued Decree 126/2022/ND-CP stipulating Vietnam’s special preferential import tariff to implement the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) for the 2022 - 2027 period. Accordingly, Vietnam will continue to exempt import tax on CBU cars from ASEAN until the end of 2027.

Specifically, Article 4 of Decree 126/2022/ND-CP and the attached appendix stipulate the conditions for applying special preferential import tax rates under ATIGA. Cars must fully meet the following conditions:

imports from countries that must be ATIGA members, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Cars must meet regulations on origin of goods (including regulations on direct shipping) and have a Certificate of Origin (C/O) Form D or a certificate of origin in accordance with the provisions of ATIGA and current regulations of law.

Thus, vehicles from ASEAN, mainly Thailand and Indonesia, will continue to have a competitive advantage over locally assembled cars.

Previously, according to ATIGA, from January 1, 2018, CBU cars imported within ASEAN were exempt from import tax provided that the products have a localization rate of over 40%.

According to the latest data from the General Statistics Office, 176,590 cars were imported into Vietnam in 2022 with total turnover of 3.87 billion USD; up 10.5% in number and 6.8% in value year-on-year.

In the 2018-2022 period, the implementation of ATIGA paved the way for many types of cars from ASEAN, mainly from Thailand and Indonesia, to enter Vietnam, accounting for about 70-80% of total imported cars and 30-35% of total automobile sales each year.

Hoang Hiep