Vietnam maintains preferential import tariff schedule on PP, PE unchanged

In Decree 26/2023/ND-CP signed on 31 May 2023, the Vietnamese government decided to maintain the preferential import tariff for all PP and PE grades in primary form unchanged from the previous schedule.

As such, all PE grades under the Harmonized System (HS) heading 39.01 are entitled to zero (0%) import duty from the date the Decree is signed until further notice provided the exporting country is a member of the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN). However, cargoes from non-MFN member countries would face a 5% duty. 

While there have not been any major changes in the import tariff on PP under heading 39.02 in the Harmonized System, for the purpose of clarifying, import duty for PP to Vietnam can be divided into three main categories.

The first category is the Special Preferential Import Tariff rates of 0% on all import PP cargoes from ASEAN, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and India as Vietnam has Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with all the mentioned trading partners.

The second category is Preferential Import Tariff rates of 3% on all import PP cargoes from all exporting countries, that are a member of the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN).

The third category is the Ordinary Import Tariff rate of 5% imposed on all import PP cargoes originating from non-MFN member countries. This rate has been lifted from the previous 4.5%. 

According to Vietnamese sources, a newly started-up petrochemical plant in the country – Long Son Petrochemical has been petitioning the government to impose an import tariff on PE to protect local production as the producer is about to bring the 450,000 tons/year HDPE plant and 500,000 tons/year LLDPE plant on-stream. There have been speculations that the government might reinvestigate the issue once the economic conditions improved.