Gov’t to test online trade system next month

The government will pilot in July a unified online trade facilitation system dubbed “TradeNet” aimed at releasing shipments at the country’s ports in just three days.

Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran told reporters last week that TradeNet would connect 66 agencies as well as 10 economic zones that issue licenses for import releases, a process that currently may take several months to finish.

“The goal is to release shipments within three days, until it would only take just one hour,” said Beltran, who is also the Department of Finance’s anti-red tape czar.

Beltran said covered agencies had already been mandated to automate processes through an order signed by President Duterte early this year.

Following pilot testing next month, TradeNet will go into production in September, after which it will also be connected to the Asian Single Window by December, Beltran said.

The hardware and software procurement process for the TradeNet system already started this month, a DOF document showed.

Ten regulatory agencies attached to the Department of Agriculture were scheduled to be the first few on board TradeNet as these were “the most complex.”

The bureaus of Customs and of Internal Revenue, the DOF’s Revenue Office and the Tariff Commission will be in the second batch of agencies where TradeNet will be piloted.

According to the document, the first 20 agencies that will roll out TradeNet contribute half of the revenues comprised of import duties and other taxes being collected by the government.