By: Lyn Y. Tallio
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.
The happy days for unscrupulous importers and smugglers of agricultural products are soon coming to an end.
Department of Agriculture (DA)Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. announced his office is set to blacklist four traders as it ramps up its crackdown on unscrupulous importers and smugglers of agricultural products.
"You will see in the next few months, I will blacklist a lot of companies, those smugglers, because that's economic sabotage," Laurel told reporters as he specifically identified the importers without naming names, to be engaged in the importation of rice, fish, and sugar.
Laurel said the DA is also imposing stricter compliance of the declaration of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC) before unloading in the country's ports.
"I came up with a new rule that ships should declare their cargoes within 24 hours after leaving their ports of origin) by email to BOC (Bureau of Customs), to us, to DA-IE (Department of Agriculture-Inspectorate and Enforcement) what are their valid SPSIC which they can use for the ship. They can’t get away now," he said.
Laurel earlier ordered the cancellation of the SPSIC issued to a rice importer in Batangas after declaring only 20 percent of the total shipment.
He said the DA will also enter into an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which monitors the importation of processed goods, for more stringent border measures to help resolve agricultural smuggling.
"I talked with DG Zacate. We agreed to have an MOU, within the year. And they will deputize the DA-IE to be their enforcement also," he said.
He said the move is necessary considering a "disconnect" within the system which some importers are taking advantage of.
"It’s about that loophole where they declare it as processed goods but, in reality, are agricultural products like frozen Peking duck or whatever because the processed goods are not under DA, it's under FDA," he said.
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