Just a few months after three important Decrees guiding the Law on Chemicals 2025 were issued, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to amend all three documents simultaneously.[1] The very short implementation period easily creates a sense of unstable policy. However, the Draft documents show that the main goal is not to change the management orientation established by the Law on Chemicals and these documents, but to handle unclear, overlapping and inappropriate points that arise when the new regulatory system begins to come into operation.
To implement the Law, on January 17, 2026, the Government issued the above three decrees.
A new system needs to be calibrated soon
The Law on Chemicals 2025 lays the foundation for a new management method, shifting from controlling some individual activities to more comprehensive management according to the chemical life cycle. The new system covers from production, trading, import and export, storage, transportation to classification, labeling, information provision, incident response and control of hazardous chemicals in products and goods.
To implement the Law, on January 17, 2026, the Government issued the above three decrees. In particular, Decree No. 24/2026/ND-CP (Decree 24) establishes lists as a basis for classifying and applying management measures for each chemical group. This document is currently published on the Government's Document System.
Decree No. 25/2026/ND-CP (Decree 25) regulates issues on the development strategy of the chemical industry, specialized consultancy, safety requirements, training and incident prevention and response. Decree No. 26/2026/ND-CP (Decree 26) focuses on conditions for production, trading, storage, import and export, declaration and registration of chemicals and management of hazardous chemicals in products and goods.
The three Decrees have created a legal corridor for the Law on Chemicals 2025 to come into practice. However, the initial review process and feedback from ministries, localities, associations and businesses show that some regulations may cause different interpretations, duplicate application or create compliance costs that are not commensurate with the level of risk.
This is the first reason why the Ministry of Industry and Trade chose to amend early: handling problems as soon as they arise, instead of letting businesses and management agencies maintain many interpretations for a long time.
Edit the list to manage the right subjects and the right level of risk
The focus of the draft amendment to Decree No. 24 is four appendices on basic chemicals in the key chemical industry; chemicals subject to conditional production and trading; chemicals requiring special control; and chemicals that must develop a plan for prevention and response to chemical incidents.
These categories are not only technical. The inclusion of a substance into, excluded from, or transferred from one category to another can directly change the legal obligations of the business.
A chemical subject to conditional production and trading may entail requirements for facilities, professional personnel and a Certificate of Eligibility. If classified as a group requiring special control, production, business or import and export activities may have to meet a stricter licensing mechanism. If it is on the list of incidents at risk, enterprises may have to develop and submit an appraisal of a response plan.
Through the initial step of implementation, enterprises and management agencies face difficulties in determining whether goods containing hazardous chemicals or chemical mixtures fall within the scope of regulation or not. This is a particularly noteworthy issue for products that have been blended, packaged or managed according to specialized laws.
If the boundary between "chemicals", "chemical mixtures" and "products and goods containing chemicals" is not clearly defined, a consumer product may eventually continue to be subject to the capital management mechanism designed for industrial chemical raw materials. That both gives rise to procedures and creates inconsistent application between localities.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade therefore proposes to review and remove from the list of chemicals with a lower level of risk to human health and the environment from the list of chemicals; transfer some chemicals from the list of chemicals requiring special control to the list of conditional production and business; at the same time, arrange a number of chemicals requiring special control from group 1 to group 2 to be in line with the orientation of decentralization of authority to localities.
On the other hand, the amendment of the list is not only aimed at "easing" management. On the basis of proposals from the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Draft also plans to add a number of substances to be controlled, including persistent organic pollutants under the Stockholm Convention and Methyl Fluoroacetate. This approach shows that the goal is to reallocate management resources: reduce procedures for low-risk subjects but increase control of chemicals with real risk.
Eliminate overlap between chemical management and specialized legislation
One of the major issues of Decree No. 25 is the scope of application to products that have been regulated by specialized laws. The draft proposes to exclude a number of regulations on safety, security, training and incident prevention for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, veterinary drugs, pesticides, animal feeds, fertilizers, radioactive substances, petroleum, batteries, accumulators, firefighting equipment, building materials, paints, printing inks and a number of other complete products.
The important point is that exclusion is directed only to the finished product, not the entire manufacturing process. A paint or battery factory must still comply with chemical safety requirements during production. But once the product is complete, packaged, and circulated for direct use by the end user, the continued application of the entire management mechanism for chemical raw materials may no longer be necessary.
This delineation helps to avoid a situation where a product is subjected to multiple management systems with the same safety goals. However, the final regulation needs to be clear enough for businesses to determine when a chemical mixture becomes a finished product and when the product is still considered a raw material, additive or intermediate for another production process.
The draft also proposes a separate mechanism for scientific and technological organizations and educational institutions to use small amounts of chemicals for research, experimentation or training. Instead of applying the same standards of industrial production establishments, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education and Training will manage the requirements of chemical facilities and safety in accordance with the characteristics of these units.
Removing obstacles in personnel, certification and coaching
Decree No. 25 is also proposed to be amended due to difficulties in determining the professional qualifications of chemical safety and consultants.
The current list of training disciplines may not cover disciplines that do not bear the correct name "chemical" but have equivalent training content. The name and code of the discipline also change from time to time, causing people with actual professional capacity to still be at risk of not meeting the requirements just because the name of the discipline on the diploma does not match the list.
The draft therefore expands the list of training disciplines and adds an equivalent certification mechanism. The dossier for issuance of a consulting certificate is also simplified in the direction of removing the requirement to authenticate some documents, clarifying documents for foreigners, allowing the exploitation of residence information on VNeID and creating opportunities to supplement the dossier instead of having to resubmit it from the beginning.
However, simplifying the dossier does not mean reducing professional responsibility. The draft requires the consulting organization to use an individual with an appropriate certificate to preside over the work; there must be at least one consultant working full-time; the person in charge of chemical safety at the facility is also proposed to work full-time so that the incident can be handled promptly when an incident occurs.
Thus, the revisionist mindset is to shift the focus from controlling the form of paperwork to controlling substantive capacity and responsibility.
Reduce repetitive procedures in production, business and storage activities
For Decree No. 26, a prominent practical issue is that enterprises have headquarters, production facilities, business locations and warehouses in many different provinces. If the authority and coordination mechanism are unclear, enterprises may have to carry out many sets of procedures for the same activity or do not know which locality to submit the dossier in.
The draft proposes for enterprises to choose the appropriate place to submit the dossier, and at the same time establish a coordination mechanism between the locality receiving the dossier and the locality where the facility and warehouse are located. This is a necessary change in the context that the chemical supply chain often goes beyond the scope of a province.
Another inadequacy arises when businesses rent warehouses of storage service providers who have been granted a Certificate of Eligibility. If each warehouse tenant has to undergo a re-appraisal of all conditions of the same warehouse, the management agency performs the same job many times, and the enterprise has to bear more time and costs.
According to the revised plan, the licensing agency will focus on inspecting service contracts, types, scales and storage locations instead of re-appraising the physical conditions of certified warehouses. This is a typical example of the orientation of recognition and reuse of existing management results.
The draft also handles cases of exporting chemicals to foreign partners because they do not meet the quality or specifications; shorten the time limit for processing some licenses; clarify the method of submitting electronic documents and solutions when the online system encounters problems.
It should not be understood that a shipment with a small volume is automatically exempted.
Redesign exemptions
The dossier of amendment to Decree No. 26 devotes significant capacity to cases of exemption from issuance of certificates or licenses.
Cases to be considered include: (i) mixtures not covered by the management list; (ii) mixtures containing banned chemicals below the very low threshold; (iii) chemical samples used in laboratories in small volumes; leveling and preparation in direct service of internal activities; some on-the-spot import and export transactions; and products that have been subject to specialized management mechanisms.
The exemption, if properly designed, will help the regulator focus on high-risk subjects, rather than dispersing resources to small transactions or with limited risk. But this is also a content that businesses need to monitor closely, because the exemption conditions often depend simultaneously on the content, volume, purpose of use, nature of the product and transaction method.
It should not be understood that a shipment with a small volume is automatically exempted. Enterprises still need to prove that they fully meet the conditions of the corresponding exemption.
Decentralization is only effective when data is connected
All three Draft Amendments reflect a common trend: promoting decentralization for localities, shortening procedures and replacing papers with electronic data.
However, decentralization can create inconsistent application if each locality holds a part of the information and uses different criteria. Therefore, the Draft Amendment to Decree 26 proposes to clarify the responsibilities of ministries, the Ministry of Finance and provincial-level People's Committees in updating, synchronizing and sharing data on certificates, licenses, import and export activities and the validity status of dossiers.
The specialized chemical database is expected to become a common infrastructure for state agencies to exploit existing information, enterprises do not have to submit the same papers and post-inspection activities are carried out according to the level of risk.
This is the decisive link. If the data is incomplete or not connected, removing the paperwork from the dossier composition may only shift the burden to verification. Conversely, if the data works well, this reform can significantly change the chemical procedure experience.
Businesses should not wait until a new decree is issued
The three drafts are still in the process of being developed and the final content can continue to be adjusted. Therefore, enterprises should not immediately apply new cases of exclusion, exemption or reduction of procedures as the regulations have taken effect.
However, units that produce, trade, import and export or store chemicals should map the entire list of chemicals in use; identify substances, mixtures and complete products; compare licenses, certificates, warehouses, professional personnel, consulting certificates, training programs and incident prevention records. In particular, enterprises need to identify obligations that are likely to change due to chemicals being regrouped, removed from or added to the list. For products containing chemicals, it is necessary to keep the basis of composition, content, use and final use to prove whether or not it is within the scope of regulation.
Overall, the simultaneous amendment of the three Decrees shows that the regulator is trying to solve a difficult problem: both strictly controlling hazardous chemicals, dual-use chemicals and incident risks, and not applying the same level of management to all chemicals, all products and all scales of operations. If carefully completed, this amendment will not only reduce some components of the dossier. The greater value lies in clarifying the boundaries of management, allocating obligations according to the level of risk, and connecting the three components of Vietnam's chemical legal system.
