Customs Commissioner Napoleon L. Morales has set the new deadline for the full implementation of a new law, the Customs Brokers Act to July 21 this year, instead of the original deadline of May 21.

The law was intended to professionalize the customs brokering practice to stop the proliferation of fixers suspected of acting as fronts of smuggling syndicates.

But most players in the import-export trading industry opposed one particular part of the law that gives licensed customs brokers the exclusive right to sign import and export documents whose fees represent about one sixteenth of one percent of the value of goods for export or import.

The electronics industry had been most vocal in its opposition, claiming that if implemented, the law would cancel out the automated export documentation system, the first, almost paperless processing of electronics export which has been in operation for two years now.

Exporters have called on the Commissioner Morales to leave them alone since the processing of export documents is revenue neutral and does not need the services of licensed brokers.

Philexport president Sergio Ortiz-Luis stressed that the new layer of red tape caused by the need to get the signature of customs brokers for every export shipment, is bound to derail the one-stop-export processing centers the federation has been operating in major exporting regions from Subic and Clark north of Manila to Gen. Santos City and Davao in Cagayan.

Even the group of over a hundred customs brokerage firms operating in major ports across the country and logistics companies led by Federal Express have joined the oppositionists to the new law as they stand to lay-off their employees in charge of working on their voluminous export and import papers if and when the law takes effect.

For a long-term solution to the conflict, PHILEXPORT and its allies have been egging Congress to rush the bills amending the controversial parts of the new law before it wreaks havoc on the country’s international trade. (Edu Lopez)