Fashion
Over 2,000 Honda cars from Thailand—the first batches of cars to enjoy zero per cent import duty under the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA)—have been imported to Việt Nam.
Under the AFTA commitments, a zero per cent tax is applicable to cars imported from the bloc, with a localisation rate of 40 per cent or more in the country of origin, starting January 1 this year.
The current batch has Jazz, Accord, CR-V and Civic models.
A representative of Honda Vietnam said that to import the autos to Việt Nam, the firm had completed procedures to meet the requirements of Việt Nam’s Decree 116 on the conditions for production, assembly, import, business of warranty service, car maintenance and particularly the Vehicle Type Approval certificate granted by the Thailand Department of Land Transport.
A consulting staff member at Honda’s Mỹ Đình agent said that the new vehicles would be rolled out to the market in May or early June, as it will take one or two months to complete checks on emission, quality and technical safety at ports.
“The price of each car is expected to fall by more than VNĐ200 million. This will be a turning point in the Vietnamese automobile market,” said the staff member.
Earlier, the insiders calculated that with the zero per cent import tax, the price of imported cars from ASEAN countries to Việt Nam would fall by 20-25 per cent.
Toyota Motor Vietnam and Ford Việt Nam are completing procedures to meet the requirements of the Decree 116 to import cars which are favourites in Việt Nam, such as the Ford Explorer, Everest, Ranger, Toyota Fortuner and Yaris.
