Importing from China to Vietnam
Every country in this region has narrowed low-value relief since 2023. Vietnam removed it.
Published · 7 min read · By YCP Team
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The rule was not changed — it was removed
The distinction matters because it changes what "check the current rule" means.
What existed before. A Prime Ministerial decision from 2010 set a value for imported goods sent by express delivery service below which tax was not collected. That is the rule everybody in the trade knew, and the rule most English-language guidance still describes.
What happened. Article 1 of that decision — the provision containing the exempt value — was abolished in its entirety, taking effect on 18 February 2025. Not reduced to a smaller figure, not replaced with a different mechanism in the same instrument: removed.
Why that is a different failure mode from every other page in this cluster. Where a threshold moves, a diligent reader finds a new number and is safe. Where a threshold is abolished, a diligent reader finds an old number — because the pages describing it are still there, still confident, and still indexed. The correction is not a newer figure; it is knowing there is nothing to look up.
How to verify anything in this area properly. Look for the *instrument* rather than the number: a decision or decree with a number and a date, and then whether a later instrument amended or abolished it. A guide that gives you a figure with no instrument behind it cannot be checked at all — which is exactly why this cluster names its sources by document.
Five countries, one direction
Read the region together and the individual rules stop looking like separate news stories.
Malaysia introduced a tax on low-value goods sold online and delivered into the country, collected by the seller rather than at the border, with charging effective from the start of 2024. Indonesia's threshold is famously small and relieves duty only, with value-added tax still collected. Thailand's low-value notification has already been reissued once, and its ending has been reported. The Philippines keeps a threshold with a statutory three-year inflation adjustment — and it relieves payment rather than permission. Vietnam abolished its exemption.
Five different mechanisms, one direction. Governments in this region have concluded, more or less simultaneously, that untaxed small parcels are a competitive problem for domestic sellers, and they have acted — each in the way its own legal system makes easiest.
The consequence for a buyer is a planning consequence, not a political one. If your unit economics only work because a parcel arrives untaxed, you are running a business whose margin is set by a policy you do not control and cannot forecast. Price the product as though the exemption does not exist, and treat any relief you actually get as upside rather than as the plan.
And it changes what "cheap testing" means. Sending a small first order to test a market used to be nearly free of customs friction. It is now an ordinary import in a small box — which is fine, and is worth budgeting for properly rather than discovering.
What is left is the ordinary import route
With no low-value relief in play, the questions collapse to the ones every commercial import asks, and they are the same four this whole cluster keeps returning to.
Who is the importer of record? You, or a Vietnamese company you control, and the accuracy of the declaration belongs to that party however the goods arrive.
What is the commodity code? It decides the duty rate, whether a preferential rate is available, whether a restriction applies and which agency regulates the product. Settle it before production.
What is the origin, and can it be proved? This matters more in Vietnam than almost anywhere, because so many readers of this page are moving production rather than buying goods — and origin is a legal test decided by the last substantial transformation, not by the address on the carton. The plus-one guide sets out the test and the advance assessment you can request from the authority before committing.
Which permissions apply, and who issues them? Regulatory clearance is a separate system from tax in every country in this cluster, and it does not soften when the shipment is small.
The land border is Vietnam's one genuine difference
Vietnam is the only destination in this cluster that shares a land border with China, and that is not a detail — it is a different set of options.
Road and rail are real modes here. For everywhere else on this list, "how do I ship it?" means sea or air. For Vietnam it also means overland, which sits between them on time and on cost and behaves differently from both.
What overland changes. Transit is short enough to matter for perishable or fast-moving goods; the paperwork is a land-border clearance rather than a port one; and the failure mode is different — congestion at a crossing is a queue rather than a missed sailing, and it clears on a different rhythm.
What it does not change. Crossing by road does not make it a smaller legal event: it is still an import, with the same declaration, the same code, the same origin question and the same permissions. The mode is a logistics decision; the compliance is identical.
And for anyone moving production, the border cuts the other way too. A Vietnamese plant fed by Chinese components across a land border has a short, cheap inbound supply line — which is genuinely useful, and is also exactly the arrangement that makes the origin question sharp rather than academic.
Questions people actually ask
What is the de minimis value for imports to Vietnam?
There is none to look up. The provision that set the exempt value for imported goods sent by express delivery service — Article 1 of Decision 78/2010/QĐ-TTg — was abolished in its entirety with effect from 18 February 2025, as recorded on Vietnamese government legal-dissemination portals. It was not reduced to a smaller figure; the rule was removed. Verify against the Customs Department before acting, but do not assume there is a number waiting to be found.
Why do other guides still quote a Vietnamese threshold?
Because an abolished rule fails differently from a changed one. When a threshold moves, a careful reader finds the new number and is safe. When a threshold is abolished, a careful reader finds the old number — the pages describing it are still online, still confident and still indexed. The way to check anything in this area is to look for the instrument rather than the figure: a decision or decree with a number and a date, and then whether a later instrument amended or abolished it.
Do I still pay tax on small parcels from China to Vietnam?
With the exemption removed, small consignments fall under the ordinary import route: an importer of record, a commodity code, a duty rate, value-added tax, and whatever regulatory permissions the product needs. Price your product as though no exemption exists and treat any relief you do get as upside rather than as the plan — five governments in this region have now shown how fast this kind of policy changes.
Can I ship from China to Vietnam by road?
Yes, and it is Vietnam's one genuine difference in this group: it shares a land border with China, so road and rail are real options rather than theoretical ones. Overland sits between sea and air on time and cost, the paperwork is a land-border clearance rather than a port one, and the failure mode is a queue at a crossing rather than a missed sailing. What it does not change is the compliance: same declaration, same code, same origin question, same permissions.
I am moving production to Vietnam. What matters most?
Origin, and it is a legal test rather than an address — the country of the last substantial transformation, decided by a specific rule for your specific product and destination. A Vietnamese plant fed by Chinese components across a short land border has a genuinely useful inbound supply line and is also the exact arrangement that makes the origin question sharp. You can request an advance assessment of origin from the destination authority before committing; the plus-one guide sets out how.
Is importing to Vietnam getting harder?
Low-value relief has narrowed across the whole region since 2023 — introduced where there was none, narrowed to duty-only, reissued, statutorily indexed, or removed — and governments have acted more or less simultaneously for the same reason. Ordinary commercial importing has not become harder; what has ended is the period in which small parcels arrived with almost no customs friction.