Philippine Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon is calling on trade regulatory agencies to revisit and simplify their process of issuing importation permits as a way to prevent meat smuggling in the Philippines.
The customs chief made this suggestion in his message at the recent induction ceremony of the National Federation of Hog Farmers, according to a statement by the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
“The government should look at different factors that would help protect hog raisers of the country and help them compete fairly with the products of other countries,” he said.
Faeldon explained that the regulatory agencies are the ones responsible for issuing import permits, and that the role of BOC is only to assess documents and check that all the requirements issued by these offices are met.
BOC noted that difficulties arising from the processing of import permits “lead importers to engage in the illicit act of smuggling.”
Faeldon said regulatory agencies “must then simplify requirements of importers to help us combat possible smuggling of meat products and other goods.”
He also recommended abolishing the importation permits for offal, or the internal organs of butchered animals. BOC cited a United Nations report that showed that the bulk of imported meat products that enter the country are declared as offal. Offal only has a 5% tariff compared to the 40% tariff on meat, resulting in a high number of smuggled frozen meat being misdeclared as offal.
Faeldon said, however, that this matter is no longer under BOC’s mandate, as it is the Tariff Commission which has the power to abolish offal permits. He added that he has been asking the commission to reconsider elevating the tariff rate for offal to make it equal to meat tariff.
“One way of stopping that [smuggling] is for our regulatory offices to work together in endorsing the position that the tariff for offal should be equal to meat tariff at 40%. I will strongly support this position,” he said.
Faeldon also encouraged other regulatory agencies to participate in the advocacy of reforming the process of importing products in the country.
Recently, the Department of Agriculture recalled all sanitary and phytosanitary permits to avoid recycling of import permits and curb smuggling of agricultural products, especially meat. Agricultural importers need to have their documents validated first before they can have their shipments released from the ports.
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