By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat   Ramon M. Lopez The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) yesterday called on all international shipping lines to stop imposing excessive charges even as it also called on the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to investigate unpaid taxes from these charges. “We are calling on all international shipping lines to put a halt to these unnecessary charges as these are unfair,” said Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez. Lopez has also urged exporters and importers to insist on “freight collect” as this is more advantageous. “Finally, we shall also call on the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to investigate unpaid taxes arising from these charges,” Lopez added. The DTI has already engaged the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to investigate on these charges. During a recent meeting, PCC was presented a study on potentially avoidable international shipping costs and other charges by its authors Dr. Henry Basilio and Michael Raueber. Lopez lauded the PCC for its quick response. In the meantime, DTI shall continue to explore avenues so government can put an end to this practice that affect competitiveness of local firms. “We thank the PCC led by Chairman Arsenio Balisacan and the commissioners, for listening to the plea of exporters and importers. We must put an end to this unfair practice of charging excessive fees as these charges increase the cost,” Lopez said. The study identified certain fees imposed by some international shipping lines and concluded these costs should be considered as part of foreign carriers’ operations and covered under freight costs. Also, the study recommended that the excessive costs should not be allowed to be incurred by or passed on to local exporters and importers, especially if they do not have any contractual relationship with the foreign carriers. Such costs, as revealed in the study, undermines the competitiveness of Philippine exporters and domestic producers by increasing the cost of imported raw materials and intermediate goods. Filipino consumers are also greatly affected by paying higher price for products for final consumption, since additional import costs are passed on to them. Earlier, Lopez said the excessive and unreasonable charges imposed by foreign shipping lines to local traders and costing the Philippine economy as much as $5 billion in revenues annually. A joint study conducted by DTI- Export Development Council and National Competitiveness Council in 2017 detailed the pricing scheme of several international shipping lines and found out questionable destination and origin charges imposed to local importers and exporters. The study revealed that some shipping lines have developed a scheme that makes freight cost less transparent in order to benefit the exporters overseas at the expense of our importers, costing the Philippine economy roughly $2 billion to $5 billion annually. Lopez slammed this anti-competition practice by foreign shipping lines saying Philippine exporters are hit hardest by these excessive fees, making products more costly. Filipino consumers also bear the impact as the additional costs of imported goods are passed on to them, Lopez added. The issue of exorbitant fees by foreign carriers was again raised by logistics service providers (LSPs) during the Ease of Doing Business Summit. The panel on Trading Across Border recommended that the DTI refer the issue to the Philippine Competition Commission since PCC appears to be the regulatory body that can best address this unfair practice by foreign shipping lines.