On June 26, 2026, the Customs Department issued Official Letter No. 18114/CHQ-GSQL to resolve obstacles and rectify the implementation of customs procedures for imported and exported chemicals. Details are as follows:
1. 100% Chemical Ingredient Declaration Not Required
- Principle of respecting declaration dossiers: The customs authority is not allowed to arbitrarily request declarants to supplement information or technical documents outside of legal regulations. Declarants bear self-responsibility for the authenticity of the dossiers.
- Cases where customs request additional dossiers: Only when there are clear grounds (based on violation history or warnings from competent authorities) to determine that the shipment is under control but incorrectly declared, does the customs authority have the right to request additional documents. If the enterprise fails to provide the requested supplementary documents, the customs authority will proceed with the analysis and appraisal of the goods to determine their nature.
- Risk management: In cases where the shipment shows signs of risk but the customs authority lacks sufficient grounds to request additional documents, the customs authority must transfer the information to the Agency of Chemicals (Ministry of Industry and Trade) and the Investigation Police Department on Drug-related Crimes (Ministry of Public Security) for coordinated post-clearance inspection.
2. Additional Notes on Related Regulations
- Timing for presenting the Chemical License: The Certificate of eligibility for conditional chemical production and business is fundamentally a specialized management license. Enterprises are strictly required to have this Certificate prior to the time of registering the customs declaration and must declare full information of the license on the declaration form. If there is no license at the time of registering the declaration, the enterprise will be penalized for administrative violations.
- Exemption threshold for specially controlled chemicals: The exemption from the import/export License applies to mixtures containing specially controlled chemicals at exactly 1% (for Group 1 chemicals) and 5% (for Group 2 chemicals).
Conclusion: Official Letter 18114/CHQ-GSQL not only protects the intellectual property and business secrets of enterprises by removing the requirement to declare 100% of ingredients but also clarifies the limits of the customs authority’s jurisdiction in requesting additional dossiers. At the same time, the document tightens risk management and demands strict compliance regarding the timing of presenting specialized licenses. Enterprises need to pay special attention to preparing all necessary licenses before submitting declarations to avoid penalty risks.
(According to Official Letter No. 18114/CHQ-GSQL dated June 26, 2026)
Related services: Chemical import procedure services
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