Vietnam’s New Chemicals Law: What’s Changing for Businesses

Vietnam’s “Law on Chemicals No. 69/2025/QH15” went into effect in January 2026. The Vietnamese National Assembly adopted it on June 14, 2025, and it replaces the previous Chemicals Law of 2007. The new legislation imposes expanded compliance obligations on companies.

The new law focuses on the life cycle of chemicals and regulates their production, trade, import/export, transport, storage, use, disposal, and recycling. The classification of substances into three regulatory groups is crucial:

Conditionally permitted chemicals
Strictly controlled chemicals
Prohibited chemicals

New Obligations

Depending on their classification, manufacturers, distributors, importers, and users face varying requirements regarding licenses, permits, disclosure obligations, and control measures.

For example, companies must:

Check their chemical inventories and classify them into regulatory groups
Apply for new licenses/certificates if necessary
Record and document every transaction involving the substance
Strictly implement safety and labeling requirements
Reclassify or reformulate products as necessary to meet hazardous substance requirements

Safety Data Sheets: What’s Changing

While the old law required companies to prepare safety data sheets (SDS) only for particularly hazardous chemicals, the requirement now applies to all chemicals classified as hazardous.
Unlike before, the new law now requires a standardized format in accordance with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS).
Content is now more comprehensive and covers chemical composition, hazards, storage, transport, protective measures, disposal, and emergency measures.
The SDS must be updated if the classification, content, or safety measures change.
The SDS for specially controlled chemicals must be submitted to the authorities for inclusion in the national chemical information system.
Missing and/or incorrect SDS result in clearly defined fines and administrative measures.

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