The decision detailed in Circular No17/2008/TT-BCT was reportedly due to the country’s trade deficit being forecast to remain high.

Automobiles, scooters, mobile phones, perfumes and cosmetics, plastic products, rubber products, garments and porcelain are among the subjected goods.

The import licence is obtained by submitting six kinds of documents to MoIT’s Import and Export Department: an application for automatic import licence; a business registration certificate; an import contract; a letter of credit (L/C) or payment documents or bank payment certificates; a bill of loading or transport documents of goods; and reports on previous imports licensed by MoIT together with customs declarations.

Eligible dossiers of application will be licensed automatically within 5 working days after the ministry gets the valid dossier sets. After going through this process once, importers do not have to go through the licensing process again when receiving goods in the future.

According to the General Statistics Office, the country’s trade deficit has widened to US$16.9 billion in the first 11 months of this year. This is already well above last year’s figure of $14 billion. The country had set targets to keep the trade deficit for this year at $19 billion.

Next year’s trade deficit has been forecast to widen to $19.9 billion as growth in both imports and exports slow sharply from current rates due to the global financial crisis.