The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued a revised department administrative order (DAO) allowing pre-shipment testing of cement at select and accredited testing centers in the country of origin to facilitate and ease the importation process, while ensuring standard compliance.
“The pre-shipment testing will avoid delays in import supply which augment the cement requirement for the ongoing infrastructure projects. However, there will still be local verification tests, including sampling prior to its release to the market,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a statement.
DAO 17-06 series of 2017, or the new rules and regulations concerning the mandatory certification of portland cement and blended hydraulic cement with pozzolan, amends DAO 17-05, which clarifies and resolves issues with DAO 17-02, which amends 2008 rules on cement importation.
DAO 17-06 prescribes the rules and regulations for mandatory PS (Philippine Standard) Licensing Scheme covering cement products, whether locally manufactured or imported.
Under the revised DAO, the distinction between regular trader importers and integrated cement producer importers was removed; both are now subject to the same import procedures, including the option to do pre-shipment testing.
“We are also helping the importers avoid unnecessary freight through the pre-shipment test. Right at the country of origin, they will be informed if their products will be acceptable or not in the Philippines (PH),” the trade chief added.
The local verification test or the post-shipment test will confirm the compliance with the standards for the products. Importers whose shipments pass the pre-test but fail the local verification test will be disqualified from doing pre-shipment testing in the future. Likewise, the foreign testing center in the country of origin that approved the products will be blacklisted.
“These amendments will ensure that quality cements get into the PH market and support quality infrastructure development under the Build Build Build program,” Lopez said.
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