The agriculture sector’s fight against smuggling
The Philippine government should continue and further increase its support for the antismuggling efforts of the agricultural private sector. Last April 28, this was shown when officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) agreed on areas of cooperation to attain this objective.
Background
On Nov. 19, 2010, the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI), under its then chair Jesus Aranza, signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Bureau of Customs. This MOA created a framework for FPI Industry Technical Experts (ITE) accredited by BOC to assist the latter. It involved inspecting shipments, verifying classifications and checking on valuation and specifications.
Last Jan. 21, this MOA was updated and signed by BOC Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno and FPI chair Elizabeth Lee.
Since this privilege was limited to the industry sector and not extended to agriculture, the PCAFI requested that this same agreement be done for the agricultural sector.
The competent and committed Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno immediately agreed. PCAFI president Danilo Fausto then submitted a list of proposed Agriculture Technical Experts (ATEs) to undergo a BOC orientation on their new role.
The PCAFI members who participated in this April 28 orientation with senior BOC officials and port collectors came from the rice, corn, poultry and hog subsectors. More PCAFI members from other subsectors are expected to soon join this initiative.
Once accredited by BOC, they will have access to BOC data and the physical inspection of agricultural goods. They will not only help BOC in analysis. BOC will also help them with their antismuggling reports.
Guidelines
The basic guidelines for the ATEs will generally follow the provisions in the BOC-FPI MOA for ITEs. Here are the key items:
• The ATEs will assist BOC in the physical and documentary inspection of high-risk shipments;
• BOC will act on ATE reports and private written feedback to PCAFI within 7 days from receipt;
• The BOC-PCAFI cooperation will extend to all high-risk tariff lines and across all major ports; and
• BOC will share nonclassified data with PCAFI to enhance monitoring and risk profiling.
This initiative follows certain significant antismuggling achievements of public-private cooperation in the past. Unfortunately, key arrangements were terminated because they were too successful.
RCEP conditionality
Such an arrangement was the creation of a public-private antismuggling oversight committee that reported to the Office of the President. The AgriFisheries Alliance (AFA) recommended this kind of public-private partnership as a conditionality for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
This conditionality was approved and ratified by the Senate on Feb. 21, 2023. The ATE initiative is consistent with this conditionality.
The AFA (composed of Alyansa Agrikultura for farmers and fisherfolk, PCAFI for agribusiness and Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines for science and academe) relied on their respective subsectors to identify two successful public-private antismuggling committees.
These committees helped reduce smuggling by 27 percent and 31 percent under the Gloria Arroyo and Benigno Aquino Jr. administrations, respectively. They were subsequently abolished because they caught “big fish.”
The smuggling indicator was the difference between the amount reported by the countries exporting to us (as reported by UN Comtrade) and the amount BOC reported they received. Alyansa Agrikultura was one of the two private sector organizations in both committees that monitored this data.
After the second antismuggling committee succeeded with a 31-percent decrease in smuggling, it was abolished. The result was a smuggling increase of 104 percent. It is a clear indication that as private sector participation decreases, smuggling increases.
The future
The recent agreement between BOC and PCAFI is a welcome move for more private sector involvement in antismuggling. The momentum of BOC impressively exceeding its collection targets for each of the last three difficult months will further be bolstered by this ATE initiative.
This mechanism should continue and be strengthened, instead of being abolished once it becomes too successful. It has happened in the past and should not be allowed to happen again.
The author is Agriwatch chair, former secretary of presidential flagship programs and projects, and former undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry. Contact is agriwatch_phil@yahoo.com
