TradeLane

On 26 January 2023, the Philippine Strategic Trade Management Office (STMO) issued an announcement (Announcement No. 2023-001) to exporters emphasizing the need to properly classify their goods under the National Strategic Goods List (NSGL) prior to registration with the STMO. 

In early October this year, the Jakarta Post in Indonesia reported that after 35 days and intervention from the Ombudsman and several other government institutions, some imported fruits and horticultural products worth about $1.9 million USD detained by the Agricultural Ministry were finally released.

On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into force. RCEP members have a total population of 2.27 billion, a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 26 trillion US dollars, and a total export value of 5.2 trillion US dollars, accounting for about 30% of the global economy. After RCEP takes effect, more than 90% of the trade in goods among RCEP members will finally achieve 0% tariff.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (“RCEP”) was signed on 15 November 2020 and entered into force on 1 January 2022 for ten countries: Australia, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China*, Japan, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It was subsequently entered into force for the Republic of Korea on 1 February 2022 and Malaysia on 18 March 2022, and most recently ratified by Indonesia on 30 August 2022. RCEP is one of the largest free trade agreements (“FTA”), covering around one-third of the world’s population and accounting for about one-third of global GDP.

*Note that Hong Kong, China (“Hong Kong”) is a separate customs territory from the People’s Republic of China (“China”).

Last May, the National Competition for Customs Valuation and HS Classification was held by CVCI (Customs Valuation & Classification Institute, affiliated organization of Korea Customs Service).

A total of 369 people, including 21 organizations, participated in the HS Classification competition, and 271 people, including 11 organizations, participated in the Customs Valuation competition.