The Department of Finance (DOF) Monday reported that the TradeNet platform that will be rolled out in December will start with the facilitation of seven commonly traded goods that represent half of the country’s total trade volume.
Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said the government’s online trade facilitation platform called TradeNet, which aims to minimize the cost of doing business and cut the processing time for import and export permits, will initially cover rice and six other commonly traded goods that represent half of the Philippines’ total trade volume.
Beltran, who is also the DOF’s chief economist, pointed out that TradeNet.gov.ph will also perform the functions of the country’s National Single Window (NSW), which will allow traders to use the system to apply for import and export permits for rice, sugar, used motor vehicles, chemicals like toluene, frozen meat, medicines, and cured tobacco.
The NSW, which is targetted to be interconnected by December to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Single Window, is a regional initiative that aims to speed up cargo clearances and promote economic integration by enabling the electronic exchange of border documents among the organization’s 10 member-states.
“The initial deployment will allow traders to use the system for the first seven commodities that represent 50 percent of the total trade volume of the Philippines,” Beltran said in his report to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III in a recent DOF Executive Committee (Execom) meeting.
According to Beltran, the 16 agencies involved in the processing of permits for the import and export of the first seven commodities will have to be connected online to TradeNet by December including: the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI); National Tobacco Administration (NTA); Fair Trade and Enforcement Bureau (FTEB); National Food Authority (NFA); Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI); Food and Drugs Administration (FDA); National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS); Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR); and Bureau of Customs (BOC).
He added that other goods will be progressively placed onboard the TradeNet platform as other regulatory agencies involved in trade facilitation get engaged in the system.
In August this year, the NSW Steering Committee met at the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) to discuss the implementation of the Philippines’ single window, along with related measures to facilitate trade and improve the ease of doing business.
Members of the NSW Steering Committee include the secretaries of the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI), Agriculture (DA), Transportation (DOTr), Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Health (DOH); the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), and the director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
The NSW Steering Committee is part of the NSW Task Force for Cargo Clearance created via Executive Order (EO) 482 issued in 2005. The NSW Task Force consists of the Steering Committee and a Technical Working Group (TWG) headed by the Customs Commissioner.
“The steering committee handles the NSW and aims at facilitating trade transactions. We want, as much as possible, to reduce processing time, cut transaction costs and enhance competitiveness. The NSW is one of the most important reforms in government,” Beltran added.
The Steering Committee also agreed to propose an EO to the President expanding the coverage and membership of the NSW Task Force, the need to interconnect a total of 66 agencies operating under 17 different departments will need an expansion of its members. Under the original EO, it only covers seven Cabinet-level departments and 13 government agencies.
Beltran pointed out that TradeNet.gov.ph is being developed by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), while the onboarding of agencies to the system is being initiated by DOF through its Inter-Agency Business Process Interoperability (IABPI) Project.
In 2016, the DOF was able to secure a P21.5 million grant from the German development bank KfW Group to help implement TradeNet. TradeNet aims to connect 66 agencies and 10 economic zones involved in approving import and export permits and other trading requirements.