ASOG, BOC conducts RTD on Harmonization of Imports Definition and Reporting

On February 23, 2022, the Ateneo School of Government, through the Ateneo Policy Center and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), held a roundtable discussion entitled, ‘Harmonization of Imports Definition and Reporting’. The discussion served as a platform for representatives of the government, institutions, and academe to discuss the administrative procedures of respective agencies regarding measuring import statistics, information sharing, and reporting of official statistics to stakeholders. 

This event was attended by representatives from the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), National Economic and Development Authority, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Senate Economic Planning Office, Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department, formerly known as Congressional Economic Planning Office, and Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The event was opened by Fr. Jose Cruz, SJ, former Vice President for University and Global Relations, while Deputy Commissioner Allan C. Geronimo provided a short message regarding the value of inter-agency collaboration in estimating and reporting imports statistics. The first presentation was delivered by Mr. Daniel Joaquin R. Mathay from BOC’s Office of the Strategy Management under Internal Administrations Group. Mr. Mathay outlined the current practice of BOC in import data processing and contextualized various discrepancies on imports estimates which lead to issues on reporting and stakeholder use of these data.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) held two presentations. First is Chief Statistical Specialist Ma. Julieta P. Soliven of the Trade Statistics Division (TSD). She shared that the methods were based on the conceptual framework of the International Merchandise Trade Statistics or IMTS, which follows the United Nations 2010 manual under a general trade system approach. The next presenter was Chief Statistical Specialist Mark C. Pascasio of the Expenditure and Integrated Accounts Division (EIAD). He shared that the main source of data is from PSA-TSD and they employ the Philippine System of the National Accounts (PSNA) framework and the Supply and Use Table (SUT) to adjust imports statistics.

Acting Deputy Director Ma. Angelica Villena of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) highlighted the differences in the methodologies between Balance of Payments, International Merchandise Trade Statistics, and National Accounts of the Philippines. As for users of imports data, Mr. Lyndon Ivan Merestela of the Department of Trade and Industry - Bureau of Import Services explained how the Bureau investigates trade remedy measures using imports data from the BOC. Finally, Mr. Paul Neilmer Feliciano of the Business and Government Research Unit at the Ateneo Policy Center provided a summary of the presentations.

After the presentations, Dr. Philamer C. Torio, Senior Research Fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center, opened the roundtable discussion. Dr. Nadia Doytch, Non-Resident Research Fellow of Ateneo School of Government, served as the moderator and facilitated the roundtable discussion.