Vietnam Issues New Revisions to Decree 113/2017/ND-CP

By Thuy Dang, senior regulatory specialist, Supply Chain team, UL Solutions 

On Oct. 18, 2022, Vietnam’s Government released Decree No. 82/2022/ND-CP to introduce a series of amendments to the existing Decree No. 113/2017/ND-CP on chemical management. The new Decree will be enforced on Dec. 22, 2022.   

To adapt to the concerns previously raised by industrial parties about the table of chemical classifications compiled from different GHS versions, Clause 23 is revised to align with GHS Revision 2. The most notable change is the threshold for skin/respiratory sensitization which has been revised from 0.1% to 1.0%. 

The new Decree also promulgates the following changes in the Annexes:

• Adding 16 new industrial precursors into the List of Conditional Chemicals in Industrial Field (Annex I);
• Providing a new List of Restricted Chemicals in Industrial Field (Annex II);
• Revising one item (Number 231) in the List of Chemicals Subject to Developing an Incident Prevention and Response Plan (Annex IV), from Mercury fulminate to Mercury and its compounds; 
• Adding 6 new substances to the List of Chemicals Subject to Declaration (Annex V);
• Providing new forms to replace old Annex VI.

Besides the changes in substance lists, Decree 82 adds household cleaning products to the exempted scope of Decree 113 requirements. 

Changes are imposed for the licensing process for Conditional Chemicals and Restricted Chemicals. New exemptions for obtaining certificates for Conditional Chemicals and Restricted Chemicals apply to the following cases:

• Activities of diluting and mixing chemicals, without reactions forming regulated chemicals, to be used or produced other products; 
• Concentration of the regulated chemicals in a mixture being less than 0.1%.

Also included are new exemptions for Chemicals subject to Declaration for mixtures with components of less than 0.1%.

Effective from Dec. 22, 2023, new requirements for Chemicals subject to Special Import Control declarations have been implemented. Current regulated substances are Dinitrogen monoxide, Cyanide compounds, Mercury and its compounds. When an applicant declares the above substances, the Department of Chemicals (VINACHEMIA) shall check the dossier and respond to the declaration of imported chemicals within 16 working hours from the receiving time on the system.

In case the dossier is invalid, VINACHEMIA shall send a response to the applicant via the National Single Window (NSW) Portal requesting that they complete the profile. Reasons for an invalid application include:

• Total volume of imported chemicals from the beginning of the year to the time of declaration is larger than the licensed annual volume; 
• The attached documents are not complied with the requirement; and information on the declaration of imported chemicals is not accurate. 

When the dossier is valid, VINACHEMIA shall approve the dossier and respond to the declared information through the NSW Portal to the applicant and customs offices.

Reference

Decree No. 82/2022/ND-CP (in Vietnamese only)