DTI warns vs erring brokers

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has warned garment and textile firms against dealing with unscrupulous brokers who lure exporters to engage in illegal garments shipments.

DTI Secretary Manuel Roxas II, said there are a number of shipping and forwarding companies who have fired some of their employees for alleged participation in transshipments.

Transshipments are orchestrated by brokers who reportedly connive with certain local garment exporters to gain profit by fabricating fraudulent documents and making it appear that they export goods made in the Philippines using the country’s quotas, even as the exported goods are actually produced in other countries.

Roxas pointed out that while "this illegal practice may provide easy money in the short-term, in the long run our Philippine garment export industry will be at the losing end."

Instead, Roxas urged the garment exporting community to report anomalous activities or individuals to the DTI.

He also encouraged them to implement an initiative similar to that taken by freight forwarders.

Roxas had earlier warned that firms involved in transshipments would face closure and disqualification to engage in any garments export activity.

Likewise, guilty firms would also face a cancellation of their quotas and licenses.

The DTI’s Garments and Textile Export Board (GTEB) recently uncovered an estimated $8.2 million worth of exported garments allegedly shipped illegally by local firms.

A fact-finding committee of the GTEB has started conducting hearings on the cases of 23 local garments companies implicated in anomalous export activities.

After the investigation, the fact-finding committee will make the necessary recommendations to the GTEB Board which will immediately impose sanctions and penalties on erring firms or individuals.