The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is working on a draft customs memorandum order (CMO) that will address gaps and challenges in the processing and clearance of cross-border e-commerce shipments.
The proposed order will contain a new set of customs regulations responsive to the specific needs of the growing Philippine cross-border e-commerce market, said Theresita Eisma, national consultant for the e-commerce program under the ARISE Plus Philippines Project.
The new customs order is also seen to adopt World Customs Organization (WCO) guidelines and other international best practices on cross border e-commerce, said Eisma during her presentation on March 29 at a national workshop on trade facilitation organized under ARISE Plus.
The ARISE Plus Philippines Project is a four-year program being implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Department of Trade and Industry, with funding from the European Union, to enhance the BOC’s readiness to comply with international trade facilitation commitments.
Eisma said that for starters, the e-commerce project’s technical team developed a comprehensive report that assesses the BOC’s cross-border clearance procedures against the WTO Guidelines for the Immediate Release of Consignments by Customs and the WCO Framework of Standards on Cross-Border e-Commerce.
The report identified gaps and challenges in customs clearance procedures and movement of goods across the value chain and made recommendations and action points for the drafting of the new customs regulation.
Consultative sessions were then conducted between the ITC and the BOC technical working group (TWG) from the second half of 2022 until January 2023 to pave the way for the development of the CMO.
About 13 key points were recommended for inclusion in the CMO, including the following:
• Mandatory declaration of customs value, items, and end consignee data in the e-manifest
• Consolidated declaration for Category 2 (de minimis) shipments
• Standardization of procedures for express, non-express and postal items
• Application of risk management techniques
• Development and implementation of a dedicated e-commerce portal for the processing of declarations and release of shipments.
