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Customs bureau recognizes exemption of exporters from engaging brokers |
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Wednesday, 19 August 2009 |
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The long standing conflict between exporters and the Bureau of Customs
(BoC) over a law requiring all export and import documents to be
exclusively signed by a licensed customs broker has been decided in favor
of exporters.
Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales has acknowledged that
individually-owned export enterprises and those declared by the Export
Development Council (EDC) as priority export products for development may
now sign their own export documents.
The concession was granted as most Philippine exporters continued to reel
under the weight of a global trading environment that has gone sour due
to recession in most of its trading partners including the United States,
the European Union and Japan.
In a letter responding to the plea of Philippine Exporters Confederation,
Inc. (PHILEXPORT) President and EDC vice chairman Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis
Jr., Morales said he has disseminated a clarificatory customs memorandum
circular dated March 20, 2009 reminding his men in ports of exit of the
fact that under the Customs Brokers Act or RA 9280, exporters are allowed
to sign their own documents as a measure to promote trade facilitation
and lower the cost of doing business.
The said law, which mainly aims to professionalize the customs brokerage
business by requiring professional licensure examinations, was signed in
August 2004.
Since the law was enacted, exporters have raised a howl because brokers,
without extending any other services to them, were given the monopoly to
sign their papers for a fee. This is likened to the monopoly of notary
publics in signing legal documents.
The exporters have gone to the extent of asking both houses of Congress
to overturn that part of the Customs Brokers Act.
The said law is undergoing review by both houses for a possible amendment
that will hopefully be passed before the end of the current Congress.-- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and
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