President Aquino Issues EO 185 Modifying Tariff Rates on Environmental Goods

President Benigno S. Aquino III has issued Executive Order 185, modifying tariff rates on certain imported products, particularly environmental goods, as part of the country’s commitment to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

The order, signed by the President last June 26, says that articles listed in Annex A of EO 185 as classified under Section 104 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, as amended, shall be subject to the most-favored nations (MFN) rate duty.

The rates of import duty on tariff headings and subheadings, which are not enumerated, shall remain in force and effect.

Once the EO takes effect, all articles listed in the Annex and are entered into or withdrawn from warehouses in the Philippines for consumption shall be levied the MFN rates of duty as prescribed.

The products listed in Annex A include super heaters, soot removers, gas converters, and industrial or laboratory furnaces and ovens, including incinerators.

Centrifuges, including centrifugal dryers, filtering or purifying machinery and apparatus for liquid or gases are also included.

Leaders of APEC member economies previously agreed to address issues on climate change, and review the progress of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Development Agenda negotiations on the liberalization of trade environmental goods and services.

They also made a commitment to take concrete steps to achieve past ambitions to realize green growth, consistent with their WTO obligations.

Under the 2012 Vladivostok Declaration, the leaders endorsed the APEC List of Environmental Goods enumerating 54 environmental goods that directly contribute to green growth and sustainable development objectives.

They committed to reduce applied rates to 5 percent or less on those environmental goods by the end of 2015, taking into account “economies’ economic circumstances, without prejudice to their position in the WTO.”

On May 19 this year, the National Economic and Development Authority Board recommended the reduction of the MFN rates of duty on certain tariff lines under the APEC List of Environmental Goods by 2015.

The country’s customs code empowers the President to increase, reduce or remove existing rates of duty, as well as modify the tariff nomenclature. PND (as)