For years, a phone charger, a television or a smart lock sold in a Vietnamese shop could say “Made in Vietnam” and nobody could say with legal certainty whether that was true. Việt Nam had detailed origin rules for exports and imports, written to satisfy free-trade agreements and customs. It had none for goods that are made and sold at home. The gap became public in 2019, when the Asanzo electronics brand was found selling imported Chinese products under Vietnamese labels. The Ministry of Industry and Trade then admitted it had no criteria to judge the claim against.
That gap is now closed. On 9 October 2026, Standing Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Gia Túc, signing for the Government, issued Nghị định 384/2026/NĐ-CP on determining Vietnamese origin for goods produced and circulated domestically (quy định xác định xuất xứ Việt Nam đối với hàng hóa sản xuất và lưu thông trong nước). The Minister of Industry and Trade proposed it. It takes effect on 1 January 2027.
What the decree is
It is a short text of 12 articles with no chapters. Its legal bases are the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights (19/2023/QH15), the Law on Product and Goods Quality (05/2007/QH12, as amended by 78/2025/QH15) and the Commercial Law. It applies to traders who produce or sell goods on the domestic market, and to the state bodies that supervise them.
The scope is narrow on purpose. Điều 1 khoản 2 excludes three things:
- origin determination for certificates of origin on imports and exports, which stays under the existing foreign-trade rules;
- labelling rules and how mandatory label content is presented;
- product traceability, which the Government regulated separately a few days earlier in Nghị định 372/2026/NĐ-CP. That decree also takes effect on 1 January 2027.
The test: two routes to Vietnamese origin
Route 1: wholly obtained (Điều 5). Crops grown and harvested in Việt Nam, animals born or raised here and their products, catches from hunting, fishing and aquaculture, minerals extracted from Vietnamese land or seabed, catches by Vietnamese-flagged vessels on the high seas, and scrap that can only be discarded or recycled.
Route 2: not wholly obtained (Điều 6). Most manufactured goods use imported inputs, so this is the route that matters. A product qualifies if it meets either:
- Change in tariff classification. The imported, non-originating materials must change HS heading at the 4-digit level (Điều 3 khoản 2). Screws, panels and chips go in, and something with a different heading comes out.
- Vietnamese value content (VVC) of at least 30%, using one of two formulas:
- direct: VVC = value of originating materials ÷ ex-works price × 100%
- indirect: VVC = (ex-works price − value of non-originating materials) ÷ ex-works price × 100%
The trader picks one formula and must apply it for the whole financial year (khoản 5). Packaging that forms part of the goods counts towards VVC (khoản 3).
The clause that matters for tech: code counts
Điều 6 khoản 4 is the reason this decree belongs on a technology beat. For goods in the information technology and digital technology field, value-creating work done in Việt Nam counts towards VVC. That includes:
- research and development costs;
- design, programming, digitisation and automation costs;
- technical testing and software testing costs tied to the process of creating the product.
The same khoản also switches off two exclusions for these goods. The simple-processing list in khoản 2 Điều 7 and the “neutral elements” in Điều 8 do not apply. In practice, a Vietnamese company that designs a device, writes its firmware and tests it here, but has the board assembled from imported parts, can count its engineering payroll towards the 30%. Under a pure bill-of-materials test that value would be invisible. The decree does not define the boundary of “IT and digital technology” goods, so ministries may need to clarify it.
What does not count
Simple processing (Điều 7) confers no origin. It means work done without special skills, machinery, production lines or specialised equipment. The decree lists ten operations: preserving goods during transport and storage; cleaning off dust, rust or paint; changing packaging, splitting or bottling; applying labels, brand marks or logos; simple sorting and mixing; simple assembly of parts or disassembly of products; basic milling of grain and sugar; simple cutting and pressing; simple inspection or testing; and slaughtering. This is the “import, unbox, put our sticker on” model, and it can no longer support a “Made in Vietnam” claim.
Neutral elements (Điều 8), such as energy, tools and moulds, maintenance parts, lubricants, safety gear, test equipment, catalysts and solvents, are ignored in the calculation.
Who it affects and what changes in practice
- No new licence. There is no certificate to apply for. The model is self-declaration: a trader decides its goods qualify and says so. Under Điều 9, the trader is legally responsible for the accuracy of the claim. It must keep the evidence: input invoices, bills of materials, a description of the production process and other documents. It must also prove origin when an authority asks. Records may be kept electronically under accounting and archiving law.
- Consumer brands and retailers, especially electronics, household appliances and anything sold online with “hàng Việt Nam” in the listing, should check every product line against CTC or 30% VVC before 1 January 2027. They also need a costing file that will survive an inspection.
- Hardware and IoT startups gain a legitimate way to claim Vietnamese origin even when most components are imported, provided they track R&D, firmware and testing costs per product.
- Exporters gain nothing here: goods later exported must still meet Việt Nam’s export origin rules and the importing country’s rules.
- Supervision. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is the focal point. Other ministries may issue special rules for goods with particular characteristics (Điều 4 khoản 2, Điều 10). Provincial People’s Committees inspect locally.
- Transition (Điều 12). Goods already labelled as Vietnamese origin “in accordance with the law” before 1 January 2027 may keep that label until they expire.
Open questions
- Penalties. The decree contains no fines. Enforcement will run through existing consumer-protection, labelling and quality sanctions, and it is not yet clear how inspectors will treat a claim that fails the 30% test.
- Scope of khoản 4. “IT and digital technology goods” is not defined. A smart rice cooker with an app is a borderline case.
- Sector carve-outs. Ministries can write special rules for specific goods. A patchwork of sector thresholds could follow.
- Overlap with Nghị định 372. Origin claims and UID traceability codes go live on the same day under two different regimes, and businesses will want them to line up.
Sources
- LuatVietnam: Đã có Nghị định 384/2026/NĐ-CP về xác định xuất xứ hàng hóa Việt Nam
- LuatVietnam: full text of Nghị định 384/2026/NĐ-CP
- Tạp chí Công Thương: Chính thức: Quy định xác định xuất xứ Việt Nam đối với hàng hóa sản xuất, lưu thông trong nước
- VietnamPlus: Quy định xác định xuất xứ Việt Nam với hàng hóa sản xuất, lưu thông trong nước
- Báo Pháp luật: Từ 1/1/2027, hàng hóa được xác định xuất xứ Việt Nam theo tiêu chí nào?
- Báo Văn hóa: Đề xuất quy định tiêu chí xuất xứ Việt Nam đối với hàng hóa lưu thông trong nước (9/6/2026)
- Tiền Phong: Từ vụ Khaisilk, Asanzo bán hàng Trung Quốc gắn mác Việt Nam, Bộ Công Thương nói ‘nỗi khổ’ khi chưa xử lý
This post is general information, not legal advice.