Following accession to the WTO, Vietnam’s Directorate for Standards, Metrology and
Quality (STAMEQ) become the central inquiry and notification point under the WTO
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.
Still, Vietnam’s system of standards is complicated and not always transparent. Some
items are subject to national standards, some are subject to regulations of the
functioning agencies and some are subject to both. Thirty eight percent of Vietnam’s
standards are harmonized with international and regional standards. In general, Vietnam
does not appear to use technical measures as non-tariff barriers. The exceptions to this
are some goods controlled by specific ministries such as chemicals, toxic chemicals and
intermediate materials for their production, wild animals, pesticides and materials for
their production, pharmaceuticals, substances that may cause addiction, cosmetics that
may impacts human health and medical equip