Ten Years Old, 85 Per Cent Alive: Việt Nam Moves the Second-Hand Machinery Rulebook From the Prime Minister to a Ministry

Most regulatory change announces itself in the thresholds. This one does not. Thông tư 56/2026/TT-BKHCN keeps every number that businesses importing second-hand industrial equipment have worked with since 2019 — ten years of equipment age, 85 per cent of design capacity, 15 per cent of design consumption, three OECD production sites. What changes is the instrument itself: the rules for bringing used machinery into Việt Nam are no longer set by the Prime Minister. They are now set by a ministry.

What the document is

The full title is Thông tư quy định việc nhập khẩu máy móc, thiết bị, dây chuyền công nghệ đã qua sử dụng — a circular on the import of used machinery, equipment and technology lines. It was signed in Hà Nội on 5 September 2026 by Bộ trưởng Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ Vũ Hải Quân, at the proposal of the Vụ trưởng Vụ Đánh giá và Thẩm định công nghệ, and Điều 18 khoản 1 brings it into force on the day it was signed. It runs to 18 articles across five chapters, plus an annex of sector-specific age limits and a second annex of twelve forms.

The same-day start is not an error. It matches the date Nghị định 292/2026/NĐ-CP of 22 July 2026 took effect — the decree that replaced Nghị định 69/2018/NĐ-CP as the implementing instrument for the Luật Quản lý ngoại thương số 05/2017/QH14. The used-machinery regime hangs off that decree, so when the frame moved, the rules moved with it. The circular’s other legal bases are Nghị định 225/2026/NĐ-CP of 24 June 2026 on the structure of Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ, and Nghị định 37/2026/NĐ-CP of 23 January 2026 detailing the Luật Chất lượng sản phẩm, hàng hóa.

The scope is unchanged from the previous regime: used machinery, equipment and technology lines with HS codes in Chapter 84 and Chapter 85 of Việt Nam’s import-export tariff nomenclature, imported for production in Việt Nam and not on any prohibited-import list. Ten categories are carved out, including transit, temporary import for re-export, sales between export-processing-zone enterprises, and equipment for scientific research or defence.

What it changes

The substantive tests are carried over almost verbatim. Điều 5 (technology lines) and Điều 6 (individual machines) reproduce the criteria of Quyết định 18/2019/QĐ-TTg of 19 April 2019, as amended by Quyết định 28/2022/QĐ-TTg of 20 December 2022, clause for clause. A used technology line may be imported if it was built to a QCVN — or, where no QCVN exists, to a TCVN or to the national standard of a G7 country or South Korea — for safety, energy efficiency and environmental protection; if its remaining capacity or efficiency is at least 85 per cent of design; if its raw-material and energy consumption is no more than 15 per cent above design; if its technology is not on the restricted- or banned-transfer lists; and if that technology is in use at at least three production facilities in OECD countries. Individual machines must be no more than ten years old, with the sector table in Phụ lục I — 20 years for most metalworking machines, 15 years for certain wood, pulp and paper equipment — reproduced unchanged from the 2019 annex.

Two references inside those tests were refreshed. The banned and restricted technology-transfer lists are now those in Nghị định 101/2026/NĐ-CP of 31 March 2026, not Nghị định 76/2018/NĐ-CP. And the carve-out for machinery already covered by a product-quality list now points at the Danh mục sản phẩm, hàng hóa có mức độ rủi ro cao — the “high-risk” tier introduced by the 2025 product-quality law — instead of the old “nhóm 2” category of goods capable of causing unsafety.

The fast lane now admits strategic-technology firms. Under the 2019 regime, the simplified import route — bring the line in, store it under customs supervision, install it, and file the inspection certificate afterwards — was open to high-tech enterprises, high-tech application projects, and projects qualifying for special investment incentives under khoản 2 Điều 20 of the Luật Đầu tư. Điều 7 khoản 3 of the circular redraws that list as doanh nghiệp công nghệ cao, doanh nghiệp công nghệ chiến lược, and projects eligible for special investment incentives and support. The “strategic technology enterprise” category is new to this regime. The mechanics in Điều 8 are otherwise unchanged: the certificate is due within 12 months of the first consignment going into storage, extendable once by up to six months on 30 days’ notice, the line may be installed and run only for inspection purposes and not for production, and a failed inspection means an administrative penalty and forced re-export.

Paperwork gives way to database lookups. Throughout Điều 7, Điều 8, Điều 9 and Điều 10, the authority handling the import is now obliged to pull the business registration certificate — and, for the fast lane, the high-tech or strategic-technology certificate — from published national databases, and may demand a stamped copy from the importer only if the lookup fails or returns incomplete data. The 2019 decision simply required the copy.

One clock is halved, one filing point disappears. In the exception route of Điều 10, for machines that exceed the age limit but still hold 85 per cent of capacity and stay within 15 per cent on consumption, line ministries and experts now have five working days to comment on a file, down from ten. Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ has two working days to reject or request amendment of an incomplete file, replacing the old split of immediate return, eight working hours or two days depending on the filing channel. Separately, requests to adjust an equipment list or extend an inspection deadline now go to customs only; the 2019 text required them to be sent to both customs and the ministry.

A national database is promised. Điều 13 khoản 6 makes Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ responsible for building and running a database of used machinery imports, and Điều 16 khoản 4 requires designated inspection bodies to upload certificate data within five working days of issue once it goes live. Until then, the old rule survives as an interim: a paper copy to the ministry within 15 days, for technology lines and for machines whose certificate records that no relevant QCVN, TCVN or G7/Korean standard exists. The ministry announces the go-live date; the circular does not.

Two ministerial duties are gone. The 2019 decision required Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ to publish a list of machinery that other countries had declared obsolete, poor-quality or polluting, and to compile annual import statistics with Bộ Tài chính for report to the Prime Minister. Neither appears in Điều 13 of the circular. Where line ministries once proposed sector age limits for the ministry to consolidate and submit to the Prime Minister for approval, Điều 14 khoản 2 now has them send proposals to Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ “for consideration and appropriate adjustment” — the decentralisation, in a single clause.

Who it affects and what to do

Any enterprise importing second-hand equipment in HS Chapters 84 and 85 for production in Việt Nam is in scope, as are the designated inspection bodies that issue the certificates on which clearance depends. Customs officers apply the tests at the border; Bộ Tài chính supervises the import process; provincial People’s Committees run post-clearance checks alongside the ministry within 90 days of an enterprise’s clearance report on a fast-lane line.

In practice: existing designations, issued certificates, pending designation applications, pending exception requests and declarations already registered before 5 September continue to run under Quyết định 18/2019/QĐ-TTg, by the five transitional rules in Điều 17. New files follow the circular. Importers already qualifying as high-tech should check whether the strategic-technology label now opens the fast lane to a wider set of group companies. Anyone relying on the exception route for over-age equipment should note that the consultation window shrank, which cuts both ways — a faster answer, and less time for a line ministry to work through a complex file. Inspection bodies should plan for the database; a five-working-day upload obligation is a materially different operating tempo from a 15-day postal copy.

Open questions

The largest one is formal. Neither instrument repeals Quyết định 18/2019/QĐ-TTg. The circular’s Điều 18 contains no bãi bỏ or thay thế clause at all, and the repeal list in Điều 65 khoản 2 of Nghị định 292/2026/NĐ-CP names Nghị định 146/2025, two Government resolutions and Quyết định 11/2013/QĐ-TTg — not Quyết định 18/2019. The transition clause in Điều 17 plainly treats the 2019 decision as the prior regime, but it does so without an express repeal, leaving a Prime Minister’s decision and a ministerial circular addressing the same subject matter. Related: Điều 64 khoản 4 of Nghị định 292/2026 lets ministry-level documents implementing Nghị định 69/2018 run until 31 December 2026, a date that sits awkwardly next to a circular that took effect on 5 September.

Two smaller ones. The circular gives no date for the import database, so the interim paper regime holds for an indefinite period. And the category of recognised inspection bodies — foreign or otherwise “thừa nhận” under the 2019 text — does not appear in the circular’s list of ministerial powers, which now covers designation and revocation only.

This article is general information about a published legal document, not legal advice; anyone with an import file in progress should check the official text and take professional advice.

What the document is

What it changes

Who it affects and what to do

Open questions

Sources