Your buyer asks for the origin document before the vessel sails. The supplier’s export clerk names one form, your forwarder names another, and the English explainer you find is correct about the agreement and wrong about what Vietnam actually issues. The form that leaves Vietnam is decided by Vietnamese law, not by the agreement’s default rule — and on one of the four routes below, those two things say opposite things.
This page covers only what happens on the Vietnam side, before the goods leave. What the importing authority does with the document after arrival is a question for a customs adviser in that country.
💬 Shipping out of Vietnam and unsure which origin route your goods are on? Sunsho Trade is a Japanese-managed trading company in Ho Chi Minh City and handles sourcing and shipment coordination from Vietnam. Tell us the destination and the goods.
Which proof of origin actually leaves Vietnam, by destination
All four routes below run on an authority-issued certificate obtained in Vietnam before shipment, not a statement your exporter writes on the invoice; the self-declaration alternative applies only below a value ceiling, or to an exporter already approved or registered with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
| Destination route | Form that leaves Vietnam | Who issues it in Vietnam | Self-declaration alternative | Rules-of-origin circular |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union, under EVFTA | EUR.1 certificate of origin | Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, or the provincial People’s Committee (Article 4(2)) | Any exporter up to EUR 6,000; above that, only an approved or registered exporter (Article 19(2)(b) and (c)) | Circular 14/2026/TT-BCT of 25 March 2026 [1] |
| United Kingdom, under UKVFTA | EUR.1 certificate of origin, carried on the register under a distinct UK form tag | Same two bodies; which one depends on the C/O form | Any exporter up to EUR 6,000 — denominated in euro, see the callout below [2] | Circular 02/2021/TT-BCT |
| CPTPP parties | Authority-issued C/O Form CPTPP — not free-form self-certification | Same two bodies; which one depends on the C/O form | Approved exporters only; the treaty’s any-format certification is not what Vietnam applies on export [3] | Circular 03/2019/TT-BCT of 22 January 2019, amended by Circular 06/2020/TT-BCT |
| RCEP parties | Form RCEP certificate of origin | Same two bodies; which one depends on the C/O form | Approved exporters only, and the declaration must carry the Annex 3B minimum information [4] | Circular 05/2022/TT-BCT of 18 February 2022, amended by Circular 32/2022/TT-BCT |
Checked against the published texts on 15 September 2026.
[1] We could not confirm from the published text that Circular 14/2026/TT-BCT expressly repeals Circular 11/2020/TT-BCT, nor its entry-into-force date. The version the ministry publishes ends at Article 40 with no effective-date or repeal clause in its text layer. Confirm both before relying on the row.
[2] EUR 6,000 is the agreement’s ceiling for UK-bound goods, but the operative figure is delegated to Vietnamese law. Confirm it against Circular 02/2021/TT-BCT.
[3] The agreement caps this arrangement in time. We could not confirm whether Vietnam extended its initial period, or when the authority-issued regime ends. Treat the row as current practice, not a permanent rule.
[4] Whether a declaration by any exporter or producer, as distinct from an approved exporter, is yet available in Vietnam under RCEP is unconfirmed. The implementing guidelines describe only the approved-exporter route.
The CPTPP row is where the generic advice fails
Every general English explainer says CPTPP origin is self-certified by the exporter, producer or importer in any format — that is the treaty default, and it is not what a shipment leaving Vietnam does.
The default is real. Article 3.20(1) provides that a claim is based on a certification of origin completed by the exporter, producer or importer, and Article 3.20(3)(a) provides that it need not follow a prescribed format. That is the sentence every explainer repeats.
Annex 3-A of the same chapter is the sentence they leave out. Paragraph 5 lets an exporting Party require that a certification of origin for a good exported from its territory be either issued by a competent authority or completed by an approved exporter. Paragraphs 2 to 4 cap that arrangement in time — five years from entry into force, extendable once by up to five more, and in no case beyond twelve years — but while it runs, it displaces the default for exports from that Party.
Vietnam operates it. The ministry’s own legal-document register lists Circular 03/2019/TT-BCT of 22 January 2019 against the form tag “Form CPTPP”: an authority-issued certificate, applied for before shipment, not a paragraph typed onto a commercial invoice. Article 3.20 footnote 3 separately defers importer certification for Viet Nam and four other Parties.
The consequence is narrow and expensive. An exporter who reads a generic CPTPP article, self-certifies on the invoice and ships has produced a document Vietnam did not issue, on a route where Vietnam requires one. The goods move; the preference claim is what is at risk, and by then the container is long gone. If a supplier tells you CPTPP needs no certificate, ask which Vietnamese circular they are working from.
💬 If a quotation’s landed price depends on a preference claim, the origin route belongs inside the comparison. See how to compare Vietnamese supplier quotations, or send the offer to us.
The EVFTA instrument most pages still cite has been overtaken
Nearly every page on EU-bound origin from Vietnam names Circular 11/2020/TT-BCT; the ministry’s register now carries Circular 14/2026/TT-BCT, dated 25 March 2026, as the instrument governing EVFTA rules of origin.
Circular 14/2026/TT-BCT is a complete, free-standing rules-of-origin circular — forty articles plus appendices. Circular 11/2020/TT-BCT is still on the register, tagged for the EUR.1 form and amended by Circular 41/2022/TT-BCT. Two provisions are the ones a dossier turns on.
Article 4(2) names the issuers of Vietnam’s EUR.1 as the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the provincial People’s Committees, with the live list maintained on eCoSys. That is the same pair of bodies the issuance circular has named since 1 July 2025, so a checklist that still sends your exporter to a regional import-export office is sending them to the wrong counter.
Article 19(2)(b) sets the self-declaration figure: an origin declaration issued by an exporter whose consignment does not exceed 6,000 EUR. Article 19(2)(c) adds the route for exporters approved or registered in a ministry database.
Here is the honest limit. The published text ends at Article 40 with no express repeal clause and no effective-date clause we could read, so we do not say that 14/2026 replaced 11/2020 with effect from any particular date. What we can say is that 14/2026 is on the register, it is dated 25 March 2026, and it is the newer instrument. Cite it, and confirm its status with the issuing office before you rely on it.
One naming point catches people out. The EVFTA text never uses the string “EUR.1”; it says “certificate of origin”, with the specimen in an annex. EUR.1 is the operational name on the Vietnamese side — Circular 14/2026/TT-BCT Article 4(1)(e) lists Vietnam’s EUR.1 specimen, and the appendix prints a form with an “EUR.1 No” field.
Self-certification, and the euro trap on UK-bound goods
Where a self-declaration is allowed at all, the ceiling that decides it is denominated in euro — including for goods going to the United Kingdom — and the pound figure published for UK traders is a different rule for a different direction of trade.
| The trap | What the texts actually say |
|---|---|
| ”It is UK-bound, so the threshold must be in pounds” | The UK-Vietnam agreement, Article 15(2)(b), sets the ceiling for Viet Nam-origin goods entering the UK at EUR 6,000. In euro, in the UK agreement. |
| ”The UK guidance says £5,400, so that is my limit” | That figure belongs to the UK’s own approved-exporter rule, for a different direction of trade. It does not govern a consignment leaving Vietnam. |
| ”EUR 6,000 is the number, then” | It is the ceiling. Both agreements delegate the operative figure to Vietnamese law. Vietnam sets it at 6,000 for the EU route (Article 19(2)(b)); for the UK route, confirm it against Circular 02/2021/TT-BCT. |
The mechanics are the same on both routes. The declaration is made out by the exporter on the invoice, the delivery note or another commercial document — not on a separate sheet. The value that counts is the consignment total, so splitting an order across two invoices to sit under a ceiling is a decision your customs broker should see before it is made.
One item on our unconfirmed list is material enough to name. Both agreements contain a provision under which Vietnam may notify the other Party to activate the approved or registered exporter route, and that notification may stipulate that the certificate route ceases to apply to Viet Nam. We could not confirm whether it has been made. If it has, the first column of the table changes. Ask the issuing office.
💬 Sunsho Trade settles origin paperwork on its own shipments out of Ho Chi Minh City. If you want the route checked against your goods and your destination before the booking, get in touch.
Who issues the paper now, and what moved in 2025 and 2026
Since 1 July 2025 an authority-issued certificate comes either from the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade or from a body assigned by the provincial People’s Committee, and the C/O form itself decides which — so “the ministry issues it” is no longer a complete answer on any row above.
Three moves are on the record, and a source written before any of them sends your exporter to the wrong counter.
April 2025. Decision 1103/QD-BCT of 21 April 2025 withdrew the delegation under which the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry issued certificates of origin, non-manipulation certificates and REX registrations. From 5 May 2025 it stopped issuing them, and delegated issuance came back in-house.
July 2025. Circular 40/2025/TT-BCT of 22 June 2025, in force from 1 July 2025, set the structure now in use: the Import-Export Department issues the C/O forms and the written self-certification approvals listed in its Appendix I, and the body assigned by the provincial People’s Committee issues those in Appendix II. The appendices cover the free-trade-agreement forms — EUR.1, Form CPTPP and Form RCEP among them — not only Form A, Form B and the non-preferential certificates.
August 2026. Circular 26/2026/TT-BCT of 20 May 2026 amends Circular 40/2025 and replaces those two appendix lists, with its provisions on certificate issuance applying from 1 August 2026. Some C/O forms sit on both lists, so look your form up rather than assuming last year’s counter.
Dossiers are lodged through the ministry’s eCoSys system either way and routed to the body that holds your form, and Circular 14/2026/TT-BCT Article 4(2) names the same two bodies for Vietnam’s EUR.1 specifically.
Before you rely on this table
Do three things before the booking rather than before the cut-off.
Fix the destination route in writing — “Europe” is not a route, because the EU and the UK are different agreements under different circulars. Have the exporter confirm the form and the receiving body with the office covering the factory’s province, and ask which circular that office is working from. Then settle whether you are on the certificate route or the declaration route before the invoice is cut, because a declaration has to sit on the commercial document itself.
Two costs follow from that. Where your own market also requires the commercial documents to be legalised, that work happens in Vietnam and on your timeline — see apostille or legalisation for a Vietnamese dossier. And whoever arranges the certificate will bill for it, so put the line into the origin-charge conversation covered in Vietnam local charges by Incoterm.
Frequently asked questions
1. Can a Vietnamese exporter self-certify origin for a CPTPP shipment?
Not in the way generic guides describe. The agreement’s default is certification by the exporter, producer or importer in any format, but Annex 3-A lets an exporting Party require an authority-issued certificate or approved-exporter certification, and Vietnam operates that route with an authority-issued Form CPTPP under Circular 03/2019/TT-BCT. Confirm the current position with the issuing office before you ship.
2. Which circular governs EVFTA rules of origin now?
The ministry’s register carries Circular 14/2026/TT-BCT, dated 25 March 2026, as the EVFTA rules-of-origin circular, and it names the Import-Export Department and provincial People’s Committees as EUR.1 issuers. Circular 11/2020/TT-BCT is still listed. We could not confirm a repeal clause or an entry-into-force date from the published text, so check both with the issuing office before you rely on it.
3. Is the self-declaration threshold for UK-bound goods set in pounds?
No. The UK-Vietnam agreement denominates it in euro, at EUR 6,000, for goods leaving Vietnam. The pound figure published for UK traders belongs to the UK’s own approved-exporter rule in the other direction of trade and does not apply to your consignment.
4. Who issues a certificate of origin in Vietnam — the ministry or the chamber of commerce?
Neither on its own. The chamber of commerce stopped issuing on 5 May 2025 under Decision 1103/QD-BCT. Since 1 July 2025, Circular 40/2025/TT-BCT splits issuance between the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the body assigned by the provincial People’s Committee, with the C/O form deciding which. Dossiers are lodged through eCoSys.
5. How current is this table, and what should I re-check?
It was checked against the published texts on 15 September 2026. Re-check three things before relying on it — whether the EVFTA circular’s status has been clarified, whether the UKVFTA and CPTPP circulars have had the same refresh, and which appendix of the issuance circular your C/O form now sits in.
This page exists because two widely repeated statements about shipments leaving Vietnam are wrong: that CPTPP origin is self-certified, and that EVFTA origin runs on a 2020 circular. Getting them right costs one email to the issuing office. Getting them wrong costs a preference claim you only hear about after delivery.