Foreign businessmen push passage of CMTA

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign businessmen in the country back the passage of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) before 2015 to continue reforms made in the previous Congress and enhance the country’s competitiveness for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) as well as address the perennial problem of smuggling.

“To be able to take full advantage of new opportunities for the Philippine economy that will be created by the AEC, it is essential for the CMTA to be enacted and implemented in advance of 2015,” the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) said in a statement yesterday.

The AEC, which would transform Southeast Asia into a region with free flow of goods, services, skilled labor, investments as well as capital, would be established by end-2015.

The JFC said the passage of the CMTA would continue the reforms which have already been undertaken.

During the 14th Congress, the Philippine Senate ratified the revised Kyoto Convention of the World Customs Organization under which the Philippines committed to bring its customs procedures in line with 78 other member countries.

In the 15th Congress, the House approved the CMTA on third reading.

“Many of the individual reforms in the bill when implemented will reduce logistic chain costs and enhance the country’s competitiveness,” the JFC said.

Aside from the improvement of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines to make it more adaptable to the demands of international trading through modernization, accessibility, and transparency, the JFC said the passage of the bill would contribute to the ongoing structural reforms at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

“The successful implementation of the reforms will go a long way in addressing the perennial problem of smuggling which contributes to revenue losses for the Philippine government and, more importantly, deters the proliferation of legitimate businesses,” it said.

As the Philippines moves into the AEC and in the future expands its trade and investment treaties with the Asia-Pacific and European economies with the Trans-Pacific Partnership or a European Union-Philippine Free Trade Agreement, the foreign chambers said the country would need a BOC which is free from corruption to be acceptable to regional as well as global trading partners.

The JFC counts the American, Australia-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese and Korean foreign chambers along with the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters as its core members.