A new United Nations report has identified and recommended three customs documents for prioritization for cross-border electronic exchange between the Philippines and partner economies. These are the Certificate of Origin (CO), Export Declaration (ED), and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Certificate.
The study published by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) looked at the pre-border stage and found that once the exporting Customs clears the goods, the preferential and non-preferential CO, ED or Single Administration Document, and SPS certificate are already available. Thus the paper recommends prioritizing these three documents for cross-border exchange between the Philippines and its trading partners.
COs help exporters obtain preferential tariff rates from importing countries by certifying that their export shipment is wholly obtained, produced, manufactured, or processed in their country. The paper noted that the exchange of the electronic CO (e-CO) with ASEAN member states has facilitated the participation of the Philippines in global trade networks.
“(It) is expected that expanding the coverage of the electronic exchange of the certificate of origin with non-ASEAN Trading Partners would boost global market access for the Philippines and provide tremendous benefits for exporters and manufacturers in the country,” the document said.
The benefits of the push toward e-COs include giving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a better opportunity to participate in global trade, cutting customs clearance times, and eliminating unnecessary administrative burdens, saving time and money for traders, the report titled “National Feasibility Study on Cross-border Electronic Exchange of Trade-related Data and Documents: The Philippines” said.
Meanwhile, the electronic exchange of the export declaration or export Single Administration Document (SAD) will facilitate information between exchange-ready ASEAN member states, while expanding the coverage to non-ASEAN trading partners will further improve the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) risk targeting and profiling activities on a wider, more global scale.
Expansion of export declaration coverage to non-ASEAN trading partners will lead to a number of benefits including reduction of coordinating costs, particularly in requesting for export information from the origin country. In addition, BOC users can expect to significantly reduce the time they spend on documentation in providing data to the Risk Management Office.
On the other hand, the exchange of the electronic SPS certificate is supported by the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, which provides the umbrella framework for the exchanging of the e-Phyto certificate with ASEAN member states and eventually with non-ASEAN counterparts.
“The exchange of electronic certificates would reduce the risk of fraudulent certificates, expedite the clearance of perishable commodities and enhance compliance with SPS measures,” the ESCAP paper, published this month, said.
The study also looked into which partner economies should be prioritized for the electronic exchange of trade data or documents. It recommended China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the United States as the top five potential trading partners for prioritization. These economies are among the leading export and import partners of the Philippines.
The ESCAP said the Philippines needs to improve its cross-border exchange of trade-related data/documents with partner economies, such as for the e-CO, e-export SAD, and the e-phyto certificate, to complement the thrust of the current Philippine administration to improve trade partnership particularly with China, Japan and South Korea, and contribute to addressing the low utilization rates of the free trade agreements or FTAs with these trading partners.
To see the success of the electronic exchange of these key documents, the paper urged further efforts to enhance the paperless trade environment in the Philippines.
“A clear need highlighted by survey respondents is for the systems of the Bureau of Customs and TRGAs [trade regulatory government agencies] to be made more interoperable and integrated, which would especially benefit SMEs as the easing of trade processes are expected to impact their operations and service delivery disproportionately,” it said.
