DA extends moratorium on marine exports to Europe

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has extended indefinitely a self-imposed six-month moratorium on marine products exports to the European Union (EU) after discovering that unauthorized entities forged documents to avail themselves of reduced duties under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

Malcom Sarmiento, director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said in a report to Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. that the agency is closely coordinating with a European Commission (EC) team led by David Hannay which recently visited Manila to determine measures to eliminate such anomalous export practices. The team included representatives of the customs services of The Netherlands and Spain.

"As a result of the visit of the team and from documents provided by the Bureau of Customs and BFAR, it was established that exporters involved used fictitious documents in support of the issuance of the Philippine GSP certificates of origin Form A in shipping quantities of frozen shrimps to the EU," Sarmiento said.

Sarmiento added that some of the companies which the EC mission visited were also not eligible for tariff preferences of the EU’s GSP.

Under the GSP, Philippine fishery products are entitled to preferential rate of duties provided they are wholly obtained from the country, from its territorial waters or caught by its vessels

The anomalous export practices were uncovered last year when huge shipments of frozen marine or red shrimps were exported to the EU, purportedly coming from the Philippines but were found to be transshipments from a neighboring Asian country.

The Philippine government imposed a unilateral six-month moratorium on tiger prawn exports to the EU starting September 2003. The moratorium was supposed to have been lifted last March 18.

BFAR which is collaborating with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has filed criminal charges against the broker and the shipping lines involved in the fraudulent shipments.

Lorenzo called on the country’s shrimp producers and exporters to police their ranks to avoid a repeat of the incident.

He said perpetration of these fraudulent practices will adversely affect the growing export market for the country’s black tiger prawns along with other marine products.

"The Philippines is one of the few prawn producing countries allowed entry in the EU and we must protect and strengthen our foothold in the market," Lorenzo said.

Lorenzo said to prevent a repeat of such scheme, the health certificates were revised to include safety measures while an electronic certification system is being studied.

He told the EU that the Philippine government would institutionalize additional safety measures for verifying entitlements of the GSP privilege, particularly for consignments of frozen shrimps and all other fishery products from the country that will be exported to the EU.