USTR flags stringent agricultural import rules in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — The United States Trade Representative (USTR) flagged the Philippines’ stringent rules on the issuance of import permits for agricultural products, saying that these regulations jack up the prices of  goods and “complicate” the export process for US exporters.

In its latest annual National Trade Estimate Report, the USTR identified the Department of Agriculture (DA) rules on the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC) as a trade barrier.

SPSIC is a document that certifies that imported agricultural materials are safe for human, plant and animal health, which importers must secure first before being allowed to import anything.

The USTR explained that under the DA rules, every SPSIC issue is valid only for one shipment and has a limited validity period ranging between 15 and 90 days depending on the commodity.

The USTR also argued that requiring one SPSIC per shipment with limited validity period “adds costs” and “complicates” the timing of exports.

Such a system also “prevents” the rerouting to the Philippines of agricultural goods “intended for other markets but not sold for commercial reasons,” the USTR said.

“It also prevents an exporter from reselling an imported product if the importer refuses to accept delivery or abandons the shipment,” it said.

The USTR also noted that the expiry of the SPSIC was based on the “political sensitivity” of the concerned agricultural products instead of sanitary and phytosanitary risks.

It said that the Philippines stopped issuing SPSIC for certain agricultural products, including US table grapes, chipping potatoes and whole birds, back in 2019 and 2020.

“The DA continues not to issue SPSIC for whole birds,” the USTR said.

It also raised concerns regarding the utilization report requirement of the DA on certain imported products like animal feed raw materials and fishery products.

Citing the Bureau of Animal Industry rules, the USTR explained that importers are required to submit a utilization report that their imported raw materials were indeed use for animal feeds and were not diverted for human consumption or for other purposes.

And since 2022, the utilization report requirement has been applied also to imported fishery products, according to the USTR.

“Stakeholders have expressed concern regarding the burdensome nature of this requirement. The measure has not been notified to the WTO (World Trade Organization),” it said.