Tuesday, December 05, 2006 Customs office asks stakeholders to help refine Kyoto accession draft
THE consultancy firm that studied how far the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has gone in complying with global standards on customs procedures has called on importers, exporters, brokers and other stakeholders in international trade to comment on the draft plan on how gaps in Philippine compliance with the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) be plugged.
The team of former customs commissioner Guillermo Parayno made the call in a new website, www.rkcphil.net, to help validate the identified gaps in compliance to global standards and enrich the plan on how the country could bridge those gaps.
The Parayno study was commissioned by the Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport)-De La Salle University partnership in tandem with the BOC and with funding support from the US Agency for International Development (Usaid).
The Parayno study has found that the Customs bureau has met RKC standards in most of the treaty’s general provisions with 69 rules already complied with against 40 items the BOC is yet to comply with.
The gap analysis found bigger hurdles in specific provisions of the RKC with 70 specific rules still to be met against 128 already met. Some still need legislations to correct buy many of the unmet rules could be remedied through administrative remedies, the Parayno team noted.
On the basis of the comments to be made after going through the website, the same group will refine its recommendations on what need to be done to assure that the Philippines will live up to its commitment to the World Customs Organization (WCO) that it will be ready to join it by next year.
Parayno already made a step-by-step plan which he called Pathway to Accession and Compliance (to the RKC). The end result is expected to be submitted by the Office of the President of an instrument of accession to the Philippine Senate for ratification. That would seal accession of the Philippines to the highest standards of customs procedures and practices. (Abe P. Belena/Philexport News and Features/Sunnex)
