MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Finance (DOF) expects 51 more agencies to be onboard the national single window (NSW) or TradeNet platform on top of the 22 already part of the system aimed at faster trade facilitation and reduced trading costs.
From an initial four government agencies — the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Biodiversity Management Bureau, National Tobacco Authority, and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency — which went on board in 2018, 18 additional agencies joined TradeNet this year, Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran told reporters.
TradeNet seeks to connect a total of 73 trade regulatory and oversight government agencies in a single platform to simplify export and import documentary processes. An initial 7,400 regulated goods will be covered by TradeNet to ease doing business, specifically trade in and out of the country.
Beltran said the agencies which joined TradeNet this year were the following: Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Quarantine, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau, Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, Oil Industry Management Bureau, Optical Media Board, National Meat Inspection Service, National Telecommunications Communications, Philippine Coconut Authority, Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority, the Philippine National Police’s Firearms and Explosives Office, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, and Sugar Regulatory Administration.
“These 18 agencies have already completed the critical onboarding stages and are now waiting to be deployed in the production environment of TradeNet for live implementation,” Beltran said.
“The remaining 51 agencies will be engaged next following the execution of the approved TradeNet onboarding work plan for 2022,” Beltran added.
Beltran said the local TradeNet platform was being tapped to exchange electronic certificates of origin (eCOs) with nine other member-nations implementing the Asean single window (ASW).
Besides the Philippines, Asean groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Using the ASW has translated into a 10-percent reduction in trade costs as it took advantage of preferential tariffs under the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement (Atiga), Beltran earlier said.
“The Philippines has an average of over 9,000 monthly e-CO exchanges with its neighboring Asean countries in its second year of live operation in the ASW,” Beltran said.
To further improve ASW connectivity, Beltran said the Philippines will put in place a common header to the document exchange required by ASW, which would go live by February 2022.
The Philippines, through the BOC, will also start operating an electronic exchange of the Asean customs declaration document (ACDD) before 2021 ends, Beltran said.
“The ACDD system is intended to be integrated with the TradeNet platform,” Beltran said.
“With the continuous system enhancement of TradeNet, the Philippines is expected to exchange the following documents with other Asean member-states through the ASW: sanitary and phytosanitary certificate, animal health certificate, and food safety certificate,” according to Beltran.