Gov’t rejects petrochem players’ bid

The government has rejected the controversial proposal of petrochemical makers to require importers to give advance notice to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and to divulge information on incoming cargo, purportedly to anticipate suspicious transactions.

Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho met yesterday with Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas II, BOC commissioner Antonio Bernardo and representatives from the Association of Petrochemical Manufacturers of the Philippines (APMP) to discuss the industry’s concern with the smuggling of petrochemical products into the country.

Camacho said the APMP had requested the BOC to require petrochemical importers to provide advance notice on arriving consignment, including the volume and the type of petrochemical being imported.

"They wanted something like a pre-advise to the BOC which would help the Commission to anticipate suspicious importations," Camacho explained. "But we said this would be far too contentious because these are critical trade information that could be an advantage to one sector and a disadvantage to another."

The petrochemical industry consists of the downstream, midstream and upstream manufacturers all competing for market share. "If we reveal information on a specific importation, for example, then the competitor would be able to tell the business expectation and strategy of that importer," he said. "That would be like revealing trade secrets."

Importers have likewise been blocking the proposal since they could be undercut by local petrochemical manufacturers if they knew ahead of time how much and what kind of imports were on the way to the market.

According to Camacho, the industry was instructed to share the information among themselves if they wanted to but the BOC would not require importers to "pre-advise" the bureau on incoming cargo and reveal that information to the public.

"We basically tossed the idea back to the associations and it is up to them to decide what information they would be willing to share with each other," Camacho said.