Exporters are enjoined to register in the Registered Exporters ‘REX’ system to enjoy preferential tariffs from the European Union. Acceptance of application to REX was extended only until 30 June 2020.

The EU REX is a self-certification of origin system that replaces the Certificate of Origin (CO) Form A. The said form will no longer be accepted under the EU Generalized System of Preferences (EU-GSP) as a basis for country of origin.

Accordingly, exporters may proceed their application by filling out electronically thru  https://customs.ec.europa.eu/rex-pa-ui/#/create-preapplication/. Further guidelines for registering are stated under the CMO 50-2019.  Accomplished applications duly recognized by the competent authorities (Export Division/Unit) shall be assigned with a REX number within seven (7) working days.

Compliance with the REX system will avail the benefits under the EU GSP program, for which the Philippines was granted under EU GSP+, that allows exporting over 6,000 categories of goods duty-free to the EU nations.

Hence, this opportunity will help the exporters’ market capability to grow and robust their trade relation towards the EU market, a potential avenue to increase export revenue and diversify export goods, that would assist in mitigating trade losses due to the COVID-19 crisis. –MRJ

A forum on “Moving Towards Quality Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) was conducted to advance the goal of quality NTMs in the country, its relevance, and issues stemming from it. It aims to provide updates on measures taken by the government arising from the results of the business survey on NTMs conducted by the International Trade Center (ITC) in 2016, collaborate with key private sector stakeholders on moving towards quality NTMs noting current industry accounts on trade facilitation. In addition, it also aims to foster knowledge and experience sharing among different government agencies that carry out NTMs and its formulation and implementation. Finally, to review the current governance and set gears for an inter-agency collaboration on NTMs.

Export Marketing Bureau’s Assistant Director Agnes Legaspi provided the updates on International Trade Center’s 2016 Philippine NTM Survey. According to her, the report showed that NTMs relating to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures or technical barriers to trade (TBT) issues are the most in number, followed by the rules of origin and customs clearances. The others are burdensome technical measures faced by Filipino exporters such as fumigation requirements, labeling requirements, product certification, and other export requirements. Dr. Thomas G. Aquino’s point of view supports the aforementioned issues, stating that prevalent challenges such as changes in trade practices add up to the difficulties in compliance of the industries to existing legitimate NTMs, thus causing hurdles to businesses. In addition, other issues on NTMs, specifically for chemicals are deemed to be disguised as TBTs.

In order to address the aforementioned issues, and the goal of having quality NTMs for the country, government agencies are carrying out their respective NTM procedures and processes to ease the burden of the exporters as:
a) Tariff Commission (TC) recommended that their agency can collaborate with the University of the Philippines Public Administration Research and Extension Services Foundation, Inc. (UPPAF) Regulatory Reform Support Program for National  Development (RESPOND) to improve transparency, accessibility, cooperation, and technical training on quality NTMs through issuance of reports on findings and recommendations for prioritized reforms, and constructing a national registry on NTMs. They also plan on strengthening the role of TC in NTMs policy making by institutionalizing it.

b) Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) – Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS) will strengthen their role as the country’s National Enquiry Point (NEP) and National Notification Authority (NNA) for World Trade Organization – Technical Barriers to Trade(WTO-TBT). As NEP, their role includes collating TBT Notifications to be routed to relevant stakeholders, and as NNA, to notify the WTO on the technical regulations, conformity assessment procedures from the different government agencies.

c) Department of Health – Food and Drug Administration (DOH-FDA) will be implementing their License to Operate (LTO) and Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) in a much shorter time (20 days) as prescribed by the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) and Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act.

This forum was organized by the UPPAF in collaboration with Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. PHILEXPORT), Tariff Commission (TC), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and Export Development Council (EDC). –KJDA

President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) and Efficient Government Service Delivery (EGSD) Act of 2018. The new law will shorten the number of days in processing permits and licenses of all business-related transactions in the Philippines.

Signed on May 28, Republic Act (RA) No. 11032 also includes stricter rules like the two-strike policy that any violation will warrant penalties and liabilities for government officials who fail to issue permits in the given period.

The provisions of the law were highlighted in the 6th Annual Ease of Doing Business Summit recently held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

RA 11032 amends Republic Act No. 9485, otherwise known as the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.

Under this Act, businesses can expect streamlined processes; reduced processing times from all government agencies, including government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs). Government agencies shall be made to comply with the prescribed processing time: three working days for simple transactions, seven working days for complex transactions, and 20 working days for highly technical transactions.

Apart from streamlining, the law also provides for the creation of a central business portal that will receive and capture application data on business-related transactions, while a Philippine business databank will provide LGUs and national government agencies access to information to verify the validity and existence of businesses. With this, businesses are not required to submit the same documentary requirement previously submitted

Exporters who are shipping out their goods through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) lauded the Bureau of Customs – NAIA decision to discontinue the reprocessing or recording of shipments approved at the One-Stop Export Documentation Center (OSEDC). A memorandum order shall be issued by the BOC – NAIA to this effect.

In February 2018, the Export Division of NAIA issued a directive that “all shipments processed at OSEDC must be re-processed at the Bureau of Customs Export Division’s Documentation Unit”.

In a meeting among the BOC-NAIA, Export Development Council (EDC) and Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (PHILEXPORT), NAIA District Collector Carmelita Talusan clarified that the directive was aimed to record, monitor and collect data of all shipments that are coming out of NAIA, not to reprocess such shipments.

To serve the BOC purpose, OSEDC will send the summary of shipments approved by the OSEDC to BOC-NAIA on a daily basis.

Collector Talusan also bid to work on facilitating trade as one of the thrusts of the BOC, aside from revenue generation and border security. The BOC-NAIA is also working on the implementation of the electronic-to-mobile (e2m) system to further streamline the processes for NAIA shipments. The private sector is encouraged by the BOC-NAIA to be a partner in such endeavor. – Asnia R. Bayabao

This is pursuant to Department Order No. 11-2018 issued by the Department of Finance last 9 February 2018 which states that the “authority to accredit and register customs brokers and importers is reverted solely to the Bureau of Customs for purposes of simplification of process”.

The BOC also posted in its website the application forms for the accreditation. Said forms indicated that the applicant must also submit a list of Importable items with clear description in technical and tariff terms, estimated volumes and values for the next twelve (12) months.

Following the issuance of DO 11-2018, the BOC is now mandated to provide the BIR with a list of accredited importers and customs brokers for post-accreditation validation of tax compliance. In turn, the BIR shall notify immediately the BOC if there is a case of tax deficiency and non-compliance of accredited importers and customs brokers.

DO 11-2018 repealed DO 12-2014 and DO 18-2014 which required two-step accreditation process. Previous process requires importers and brokers to go through stringent verification procedure of BIR to secure Importers Clearance Certificate (ICC) and Brokers Clearance Certificate (BCC) respectively and submit the same as form part of the requirement of BOC accreditation.Since March 1, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has stopped accepting application for accreditation.

Exporters are encouraged by the Bureau of Philippine Standard (BPS) of the Department of Trade and Industry to comment on the proposed technical regulations of different countries on 151 products. The list is released by the World Trade Organization (WTO) through the WTO-TBT Enquiry Point at the BPS Standards and Conformance Portal (www.bps.dti.gov.ph). Said regulations cover Domestic and Commercial Equipment, Entertainment, Sports, Electrical Engineering, Fluid Systems and Components for General Use, Food and Beverages, Health Care Technology etc. to be exported to Brazil, Egypt, the European Union, Rwanda, the United States of America and other countries.

For more information, DTI-BPS may be reached at its email:  bps@dti.gov.ph and tel. no. (632) 751.4700.

Relevant government agencies have concurred to the urgency of the Philippine accession to the Istanbul Convention which will implement the ATA Carnet System.

The ATA Carnet is an international scheme that will allow tax-free and duty-free importation of commercial samples, professional equipment and articles for presentation or use in trade fairs, shows, exhibitions without customs formalities. It will also allow traders to use Carnet, a single document of goods that will pass through several customs territories and will be valid up to one (1) year. Hence, traders will save costs and time in clearing goods at the border.

Relevant agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Finance (DOF) are urged to submit their respective Certificates of Concurrence (COC) to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) by December 2017.

The DFA – United Nations and International Organizations (UNIO) leads in the preparation of the Instrument of Accession for the President’s approval. Director Roberto Manalo of the DFA-UNIO who serves as the chair of the technical working group on ATA Carnet, underscored the need for government agencies to support the promotion of export development through the ATA Carnet system.

He added that this is also in compliance to the Office of the President Memorandum Circular No. 27 issued last 6 October 2017 which directs government agencies to “strengthen the implementation of the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP).” –Asnia R. Bayabao

Bureau of Customs officials and personnel are now mandated to take action within five (5) days of receipt of official communication from its internal and external stakeholders to facilitate processing of documents.

Pursuant to Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) 24-2017, employee shall acknowledge receipt of the documents and act upon it within 5 days or refer it to appropriate office if it’s not within its jurisdiction.

The CMO rendered the affected existing Citizen’s Charters of BOC relevant offices obsolete and shall be revised, reprinted and reposted. It also provides that non-compliance of employees may be a ground for administrative and disciplinary sanctions for erring employees.

CMO 24-2017 was signed by Commissioner Isidro Lapeña last 23 October 2017 in response to the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to all government agencies to expedite processing of letters, requests and permits.

It also cited the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 (Republic Act (RA) 9845),  Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards from Public Officials and Employees (RA 6713) and SONA Directive No. 2017-0010 issued by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio V. Evasco, Jr. last 7 September 2017 which directs “All Department Secretaries and Agency Heads to ensure that all Directors and its personnel in their respective agencies act on letters and requests from the public within 15 working days, subject to existing laws, rules and regulations.- Asnia R. Bayabao