Amending laws on technical regulations to create a healthy business environment

On the afternoon of November 22, Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat, authorized by the Prime Minister, presented to the National Assembly a Law Project amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations.

He said that in the process of opening the economy and attracting foreign investment, Vietnam has participated and signed many international treaties related to quality standards activities such as the Agreement on Technical Barriers in Trade (WTO/TBT), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

In addition, Vietnam has signed many new generation free trade agreements (FTAs) with the European Union; Korea; Eurasian Economic Union; Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Law on Standards and Technical Regulations has provided general principles for developing standards, technical regulations, and international cooperation. However, these regulations are at a basic level, only suitable at the time of 2007. At that time, Vietnam had just joined the WTO and the scale of international economic integration, capacity to participate in supply chains and production internationalization is not as extensive as it is today.

Minister Dat said that the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations is no longer completely consistent with the requirements of international integration under new generation FTAs ​​with more open commitments. Foreign organizations and individuals are deeply involved in the development and application of standards and technical regulations. The Law on Standards and Technical Regulations does not fully stipulate Vietnam’s transparency obligations as well as the authority, responsibility, and obligation to notify and answer technical barriers in trade.

In this revision, the Government aims to create a favorable environment to mobilize, allocate and effectively use resources; Actively integrate and improve the effectiveness of international cooperation. This will be the legal framework for state management of standards and technical regulations and creating a healthy investment and business environment, protecting the legal rights of consumers.

The Minister said the bill promotes deep international integration and fully implements international commitments on transparency requirements; Promote socialization of standards development, dissemination and application activities. The Government also developed many policies to improve regulations on principles, subjects, bases, order and procedures for developing, appraising, publishing TCVN, promulgating QCVN and QCDP; Improve the efficiency of construction activities and manage facility standards more strictly.

Representative of the verification agency, Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy said he agreed with the amendment of regulations on conformity assessment to meet the requirements of transparency in implementation. FTA Agreements. The Committee requested that the draft Law need to supplement regulations on operating conditions of conformity assessment organizations to ensure the competitiveness, objectivity and effectiveness of this activity, especially conformity certification activities. standard, conformity.

Mr. Huy also stated that the addition of regulations on transparency and notification and Q&A activities on technical barriers in trade are still general and do not specify the responsibilities of relevant entities. Therefore, the Standing Committee recommends specifying in legal guidance documents the responsibilities of relevant entities in transparency, activities to be carried out and conditions to ensure transparency.

The National Assembly will discuss this Law project on November 28 and is expected to pass it at its mid-2025 session.