Used Phones, Laptops and Chips Stay Banned: Việt Nam Re-Issues Its Second-Hand Tech Import List Under the Digital Technology Industry Law

Việt Nam has banned imports of most second-hand computers, phones, printers and electronic components for years. Until now the list of banned products rested on a 2018 circular from the former Ministry of Information and Communications, issued under the 2006 Luật Công nghệ thông tin. Thông tư 63/2026/TT-BKHCN moves the list onto the new legal framework. It keeps almost every product heading and changes the rules around them.

What the document is

The full title is Thông tư công bố chi tiết Danh mục sản phẩm công nghệ số đã qua sử dụng cấm nhập khẩu kèm theo mã số hàng hóa (mã HS), a circular publishing the detailed list of used digital technology products banned from import, with their HS codes. Bộ trưởng Bộ Khoa học và Công nghệ Vũ Hải Quân signed it in Hà Nội on 27 October 2026, at the proposal of the Cục trưởng Cục Công nghiệp công nghệ thông tin. The Government Office published it on 29 October. It has three articles and a five-page annex, and takes effect on 1 January 2027.

Its legal bases are the Luật Công nghiệp công nghệ số (Law 71/2025/QH15, passed 14 June 2025), the Luật Quản lý ngoại thương, Nghị định 292/2026/NĐ-CP of 22 July 2026 implementing the foreign trade law, and Nghị định 353/2025/NĐ-CP of 31 December 2025 implementing the digital technology industry law. Điều 1 states that the list gives detail to khoản 2 Điều 5 of Nghị định 292/2026.

On 1 January 2027 it supersedes Thông tư 11/2018/TT-BTTTT of 15 October 2018, which has applied since 30 November 2018.

What is on the list

The annex covers two chapters of the tariff nomenclature.

Chapter 84: printers, copiers and fax machines under heading 8443, at eight listed eight-digit codes plus filled ink cartridges (8443 99 20); calculating machines and cash registers (8470); and all automatic data-processing machines (8471), meaning computers, laptops and servers.
Chapter 85: telephones, including smartphones, and network equipment (8517); microphones, speakers, headphones and amplifiers (8518); broadcast transmitters and cameras (8525); radar and radio remote controls (8526); radio receivers (8527); monitors, projectors and TV receivers (8528); printed circuits (8534); electron tubes (8540); integrated circuits (8542); and insulated wire, cable and optical fibre cable (8544), with 17 eight-digit cable lines spelled out.

Listing a four-digit heading bans every eight-digit code under it. Listing a six-digit subheading bans every code under that subheading. An eight-digit entry bans that code only. Used parts, accessories, sub-assemblies and electronic components of listed products are also banned.

What changes compared with 2018

The headings barely move. Every four-digit heading in the 2018 annex appears again. The description of heading 8517 now says “including smartphones”, which follows the newer tariff wording. Among the printer lines, the 2018 code 8443 32 49 does not appear in the new annex. The circular does not explain why.

The tariff reference is updated, with a conflict rule. The 2018 list was built on the tariff nomenclature in Thông tư 65/2017/TT-BTC. The new one uses Thông tư 31/2022/TT-BTC of 8 June 2022. Điều 2 khoản 1 điểm b adds a rule the old text lacked: if an HS code in the annex does not match the national nomenclature, customs law prevails.

The printer exceptions move into the annex. In 2018 the carve-outs were in the body of the circular. Now they appear as notes against heading 8443, and the substance is unchanged:

multi-colour digital printers and copiers are excluded;
monochrome digital printers and copiers that handle A0 paper, or print or copy at 35 A4 pages a minute or more, are excluded;
used laser toner cartridges are excluded.

The 2018 text sent multi-colour machines to the printing law. The new circular simply leaves them off the list.

The refurbished-goods definition is rewritten. Refurbished products whose HS code is on the list are still banned, as before. The definition has changed. In 2018 a refurbished product had to carry a label, in Vietnamese or an equivalent foreign language, saying it was refurbished, and the manufacturer’s warranty had to match that of a new product. The 2026 definition requires refurbished products to meet the technical regulations, standards, warranty and labelling rules that apply to new products. The explicit “refurbished” label requirement is no longer in this text.

Chip and R&D equipment is confirmed as outside the ban. Điều 2 khoản 2 điểm e is new. It covers used technology lines, machinery, equipment and tools that:

meet the import criteria in the digital technology industry law;
directly serve an investment project to produce, package or test semiconductor chips, or training and R&D for digital technology products and services;
are not on the banned list.

Those criteria are set in Thông tư 30/2025/TT-BKHCN. For example, it allows used machines up to 20 years old, against the general ten-year limit for used machinery in Thông tư 56/2026/TT-BKHCN. It also exempts training and R&D equipment from some performance tests. The new clause confirms the two regimes in the same document as the ban.

Who is affected and what to do

The circular matters to importers and traders of IT hardware, refurbishers, electronics manufacturers bringing in used test or production equipment, customs brokers, and the semiconductor investors the Government is trying to attract.

Permits already issued. Under Điều 3 khoản 3, goods on the old list that a competent authority allowed in before 1 January 2027 can still be imported under the terms and within the validity of that permit.
Exceptional imports. The circular does not change the procedure for importing banned items in specific cases. That procedure is in Thông tư 26/2025/TT-BKHCN, which has applied since 31 October 2025. It covers specialised use, moving production equipment within one organisation, scientific research, re-importing items repaired abroad, refurbished spare parts no longer manufactured, and processing for foreign traders.
Refurbishers. They should check product compliance against the rules for new goods rather than only the old labelling formula.
Importers. They should map their HS codes against the 2022 nomenclature now. The circular says customs classification prevails where the two disagree.

Open questions

Printer code 8443 32 49. It is not clear whether dropping this code reflects renumbering in the 2022 nomenclature or a real narrowing of the ban. Importers of the affected machines should ask customs or the ministry.
Exception procedure. Thông tư 26/2025/TT-BKHCN was written under Nghị định 146/2025/NĐ-CP, which has since been replaced in the foreign-trade framework by Nghị định 292/2026. The new circular does not say whether the exception procedure will also be re-issued.
Refurbished labelling. The rewritten definition no longer says outright that a refurbished product must be labelled as refurbished. It will matter whether consumer-protection or labelling rules fill that gap.

Sources

This post is general information, not legal advice.