Background:
On March 8, 2018, Vietnam and ten other countries (Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Canada) signed a free trade agreement named the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The CPTPP will provide preferential access to markets of the 11 participating countries. On January 14, 2019, the CPTPP entered into force for Vietnam.[1]
For the cosmetic sector, the Vietnam Ministry of Health released the circular 32/2019/TT-BYT to implement the CPTPP. According to the circular, from February 1, 2020, the Certificate of Free Sale (CFS) is no longer required for notification of imported cosmetics from CPTPP member states.
For cosmetics from a non-CPTPP member state, the CFS to be submitted shall comply with the following requirements:
The CFS, which is issued by the exporting country, must have been original or legally notarized and still valid. In case CFS does not have an expiry date, it must be issued within 24 months
CFS must follow all legal requirements
Furthermore, an amended notification application form is enclosed in the circular. Starting from the effective date, notifiers shall fill out and submit the new form for cosmetic notification.