Indonesia and Thailand to resume car exports following Decree 116

Indonesia and Thailand are Vietnam's top car import markets

Indonesia and Thailand, Vietnam’s two major car exporters, are trying to change the Vehicle Type Approval (VTA) certificates to reopen car exports to the country after Decree 116 tightened quality checks.

International trade director general of the Indonesian Ministry of Trade Oke Nuwan said in a statement on last Thursday that, “With the VTA adjustment, Indonesian automobile exports are expected to return to the country.”

Under the decree, car importers in Vietnam are required to obtain a VTA certification, which details the imported vehicles’ quality, safety and environmental protection. The VTA must be issued by authorities in exporting countries. In addition to this, one sample will be selected from every batch of imported cars for emission, quality and technical safety tests. The inspection will be repeated in the next shipment, even on the same car models.

Recently, automobile branches like Toyota and Honda have announced stopping bringing cars to Vietnam because they cannot obtain a VTA certificate issued by authorities in the exporting country.

“The Indonesian government will convey the change in the VTA certificate to the Vietnamese government to get an immediate response. Hopefully, there will soon be automotive exports to Vietnam,” said Oke, who led the Indonesian delegation in its visit to Hanoi on February 27-28.

Indonesia has also sent sample of VTA to the Vietnamese authorities for confirmation of the acceptance of the requirement in line with Decree 116.

New regulations issued by the Vietnamese government forced Indonesia to stop the exports of completely built-up (CBU) vehicles to Vietnam this month.

Meanwhile, Pham Anh Tuan, head of the Policy Subcommittee of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturerss Association, said that the Ministry of Transport (MoT) has accepted the model VTA certificate issued by the Thai government for vehicles exported to Vietnam.

He added that automakers are planning to resume exports after several months of halt. Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Mazda, who exported vehicles from Thailand to Vietnam, had submitted the papers to the ministry and recently received approval for exports.

Decree 116 stipulates the conditions for producing, assembling, importing and trading automobile maintenance and repair services and was issued on October 17 last year to tightened car imports from January 1, 2018 onwards.

Car importers in Vietnam are now required to obtain a VTA certification, which details the incoming vehicles' quality, safety, and environmental protection specs. The VTA must be issued by the authorities of the exporting country.

According to Vietnam Customs, Japanese automaker's Honda is going to complete customs procedures to import cars into Vietnam today, marking its first shipment after Decree 116 that tighten checks take which took effect January 2018.

The first fleet from Thailand arrived in Ho Chi Minh on March 1, 2018. With 2,004 Honda cars including Jazz, Accord, CRV and Civic. Under that, 1,054 cars will shipped off in Ho Chi Minh’s SPCT Port to complete customs procedures. The remaining will be transferred to the northern port of Haiphong.

Honda Vietnam’s website released that Honda Vietnam is trying to meet the new requirements on import conditions in Decree 116 to hand out cars to customers in the second quarter of 2018.