The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has committed to finalize its Regulated Imports List (RIL) by April 2 in time for full implementation on April 20.
With a draft released in February, the RIL – the list of all regulated imports as well as detailed information about the procedures for acquiring the necessary permits — will be the single reference of BOC in clearing regulated import products.
During his RIL presentation at the first National Competitiveness Councils Dialogue on March 13, Customs commissioner John Phillip Sevilla committed to keep the list up to date and not to implement changes without giving notice to affected sectors “unless there are public health or public interest reasons.”
The agency continues to solicit comments from concerned government agencies and the private sector for changes needed in the list.
This early though, the Customs chief has warned of potential overlaps in implementation of the RIL due to the broad definition of products by some agencies.
For instance, Sevilla said the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) recently sent BOC a letter saying it (BAI) should be the one to issue permits for all dairy products. The Customs chief said he has already written BAI asking where its coverage of dairy products end, and what dairy products the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for its part, should be looking out for.
Sevilla explained, “We are your enforcers. If we don’t understand your rules we cannot enforce. We need guidance from the agencies.”
He added, “It’s government’s role to coordinate among themselves.”
However, Sevilla pointed out it’s not in BOC’s mandate to change rules implemented by the permit-issuing agencies. He instead asked the private sector to help change rules that are redundant and overlapping.
Sevilla said in his years with government, “Things are only going to move when there is a strong push from the private sector. If we want reasonable, relevant regulations and we want to cut out redundancies… the pressure has to come from the people who are most affected by it.”
Moreover, the Customs chief said aside from working on the overlaps and broad definitions, there’s “a need to think through whether some regulations are really necessary.”
Recently, FDA, BAI and the BOC agreed that BAI no longer needed to require a permit for chocolate products. Since chocolates have milk content – an animal product — BAI along with the FDA had earlier required a permit, even from Duty Free stores, for the importation of the chocolate product. Now only FDA requires a permit.
Another concern, which Sevilla pointed out, was that “nothing from any of these regulatory agencies, with their communications with Customs, tells us these rules are limited to commercial products.”
Sevilla said this means, theoretically, a Filipino who flew back to the country with a single bottle of wine or a bar of chocolate has violated the law because these products are under the regulated imports list and therefore needs a permit.
The Customs chief asked the private sector’s sector help in clarifying these rules as “We don’t want to have to ask you to produce your import permit for your Johnny Walker in the airport.”
Meanwhile, Sevilla said only 11 of the 23 agencies intended as users of the National Single Window (NSW) are utilizing the platform for issuance of permits. This could be because personnel trained to operate the software may no longer be in the employ of the agencies.
Sevilla said BOC has a team talking to the agencies to make use of the NSW. “It’s not great but it’s usable,” he noted.
He said using the NSW makes processing of regulated imports faster. It is “more convenient for importers to get whatever documents they need because there’s an online electronic platform” and it’s “easier for Customs to verify the authenticity of those permits.”
Sevilla said there are discussions with the FDA and the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) since these agencies issue the largest number of permits but don’t use the NSW.
The FDA and BPS are targeted for linkup with the NSW by July this year. – Roumina Pablo
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
