Vietnam publishes a draft amendment to Decree No. 113/2017/ND-CP

On July 9, 2021, the General Department of Chemicals of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) of Vietnam published a draft decree to amend Decree No. 113/2017/ND-CP regarding the Law on Chemicals.

This amendment includes the addition of regulated chemicals under POPs convention, the designation of chemicals requiring special controls upon import, the establishment of concentration cut-off value for regulated chemicals, and supplements on exemption.

 The amendment includes the following:

·         Addition of ‘banned chemicals’, that is, 12 substances that are regulated by the Chemical Weapons Convention will be added to the Annex III list of banned chemicals

·         Addition of ‘restricted chemicals’, these are six substances regulated by the Stockholm Convention which will be added to the list of restricted chemicals of Annex IV in this new amendment. The six substances include Hexabromocyclododecane, Chlordecone, Pentachlorobenzene (PeCB), Polychlorinated naphthalene (PCN) Decabromodiphenyl ether (DBDE), Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts.

·        Upon import, Nitrous oxide, cyanide, mercury, and mercury compounds will be newly designated as chemicals subject to special control. And after they are declared for import, MOIT will determine their compliance and notify the results while taking the annual import volume into account.

·        Concentration cut-off value will be specified and conditional chemicals, restricted chemicals, and chemicals to be declared will not be regulated if their concentration is less than 0.1%.

·        The annual reporting deadlines for chemical activities will change.

·         Entities engaged in various chemical activities are to submit the results of the previous year's activities to local authorities by January 15 of each year. The proposed amendment changes the deadline to February 15.

·         And there are also changes to the GHS classification categories.

The draft is expected to come into force in early 2022 with minor revisions.