Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Vietnam's 15th National Assembly adopted Law No. 147/2025/QH15 ("Law amending and supplementing some articles of the Law on Geology and Minerals") on 11 December 2025 by 421 of 432 deputies in favour (89.01%), at the 10th session, with effect from 1 January 2026. The amendment slots a dedicated rare-earth framework into the parent Law No. 54/2024/QH15, classifying rare earths as "special strategic" minerals subject to strict state management. Raw rare-earth ore export is prohibited; only state-designated or state-approved enterprises may explore, exploit, process and use rare earths; all activity must conform to a national rare-earth strategy and master plan. The state centralises geological data, regulates rare-earth import/export flows according to national needs, and builds strategic stockpiles. The amendment converts the 2024 framework law's general domestic-supply priority into an explicit raw-export ban for the world's second-largest known rare-earth resource holder.

Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Circular 18/2024/TT-BCT on 8 October 2024, suspending the temporary-import, re-export, and transit ("tạm nhập, tái xuất, chuyển khẩu") trade of a list of scrap materials keyed to the HS-based commodity list in Ministry of Finance Circular 31/2022/TT-BTC. The suspension runs 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2029. It targets traders using Vietnam as an entrepot for scrap shipments rather than domestic recyclers, and does not apply to genuine transit trade where goods move directly from the exporting to the importing country without clearing Vietnamese customs. The stated purpose is to prevent environmental contamination, curb trade fraud, and stop Vietnam becoming a dumping ground for scrap/waste from other countries.