Lawmakers nix plan to revive pre-shipment inspection

by Catherine Pillas – October 13, 2015

Congress is backing exporters in their stand against the revival of the pre-shipment inspection (PSI) scheme, stressing the need for further trade facilitation.

In separate text messages, Rep. Romero S. Quimbo and Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara, chairmen of the Ways and Means committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate, respectively, said the scheme should be a matter of choice.

The Ways and Means committees of both chambers are in charge of moving the amendments to the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA). Several camps are pushing the revival of the PSI scheme through the proposed CMTA.

“I don’t agree that pre-shipment inspection should be made a requirement, more so be made legally mandatory. Pre-shipment inspection is potentially in conflict with the Kyoto Convention, which the Senate ratified in 2010.

What we need in the BOC [Bureau of Customs] is trade facilitation, not more inspection,” Quimbo said in a text message.  For Angara, the implementation of the PSI scheme should not be any different from when it was being implemented before the expiration of the government’s contract with its former contractor, SGS, for this service.

“The PSI is something that is left open, meaning as a matter of choice, to a country’s administrators. As in the past, we had the customs working with the SGS, but past administrations terminated this. So, at the end of the day, that type of inspection boils down to an administrative choice rather than a legislative injunction,” Angara said in a text message.

The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) on Monday warned against any move to insert the PSI scheme into the proposed CMTA, saying that the move will further reduce the competitiveness of traders who are still bearing the hefty costs of trucking and shipping fees, on top of the downturn in export receipts.

“If that is implemented, businesses will shoulder the cost. Ideally, the government should shoulder it, but it doesn’t. This is an added expense to the trucking and shipping fees. This makes us uncompetitive,” Philexport President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said in a phone interview.

Source: www.businessmirror.com.ph