A rising trend in the market recently is environmentally friendly products and services. With annual statistics showing that people are increasingly polluting their own environment, consumers now have a great demand for products that do not affect the environment, and are highly biodegradable and recyclable. For the production of environmentally friendly products and services, what conditions and procedures does Vietnamese law prescribe related to this group of products and services?
1. What are environmentally friendly products and services?
Pursuant to Article 145.1 Environmental Protection Law 2020, environmentally friendly product or service refers to a product or service created using environmentally friendly materials and production and management technology to minimize its environmental impacts during its use or after it is disposed of in a manner that ensures environmental safety and human health, and is certified or recognized by a competent authority.
Accordingly, the companies should note that when producing this type of product, the companies not only need to ensure that the products meet technical and quality criteria, but these products and services must also be certified or recognized by competent agencies to be considered environmentally friendly products, services under Vietnamese law. Pursuant to Article 145. Environmental Protection 2020, environmentally friendly products and services must have Vietnamese ecolabel certification.
In addition, organizations, individuals producing Vietnam Ecolabel certified products and services shall be entitled to the incentives issued in Section 2 Chapter X Decree 08/2022/ND-CP. For example, pursuant to Article 134.1 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, corporate income obtained from an investment project for environmentally friendly products and services certified by Vietnam Ecolabel shall be entitled to corporate income tax incentive in accordance with regulations of law on corporate income tax.
2. Vietnam Ecolabel
Vietnam ecolabel is a label that is awarded by a Vietnamese competent authority to an environmentally friendly product or service. The monitoring, analysis and conformity assessment for comparison with Vietnam Ecolable criteria applicable to a product or service must be carried out by competents organizations, including:
- Organizations certified by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment eligible to provide environmental monitoring services;
- Assessment conformity bodies certified by regulations of law on science and technology;
- Domestic and international testing bodies certified conformable with ISO/IEC 17025 by accreditation bodies which are signatories to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), Asia-Pacific Accreditation Cooperation Organization (APAC) and International Laboratory Accreditation Association (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Agreement.
The decision on certification of Vietnam Ecolabel for eco-friendly products and services shall be valid for 36 months from the date of issue (Article 145.3 Decree 08/2022/ND-CP).
It is notable that Vietnam also shall recognize environmentally friendly products and services already certified by international organizations and countries signing the mutual recognition agreements with Vietnam (Article 145.3 Environmental Protection Law 2020).
3. Application for certification of Vietnam Ecolabel
Pursuant to Articles 146 and 147.1 Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, companies shall submit a dossier of application for Vietnam Ecolabel certification to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, including the following documents:
- An application form for certification of Vietnam Ecolabel for ecofriendly products and services;
- A report on products and services satisfying Vietnam Ecolabel criteria;
- The product testing result which must be given no more than 06 months before the date on which MONRE receives a valid application enclosed with a sample of the product to be certified;
- A drawing or photo of the industrial design with 21 cm x 29 cm dimensions and description of the product’s specifications.
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