The Department of Trade and Industry – Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) will hold an information session on European Union’s new system of registration for exporters on 20 August 2019, 8:30 am at the Rosemary Ballroom, City Garden Grand Hotel, Makati City. The resource speaker will be Mr. Christophe Fontaine of DG Taxud which is the EU Customs Office.

Exporters registered in this new system, called the EU REX, will be included in the EU list of registered exporters and will be able to issue their own statement of origin or certificate of origin. The certificate of origin is a requirement for the availment of tariff preference under the EU Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus or GSP+. This is expected to make exporting to the EU faster and easier.

The Philippines is one of the beneficiary countries of the EU GSP+ that grants zero tariffs to 6,274 product lines. Based on EU trade data, Philippine GSP+ utilization has been increasing from 68% in 2015 to 73% in 2018. The increased utilization rate has resulted in the increase of exports to the EU from EUR6.68 billion in 2015 to EUR7.49 billion in 2018. Top products exported under EU GSP+ were crude coconut oil and canned tuna.

In 2018, EU was the Philippines’ 5th trading partner, export market and import source. Total bilateral trade was valued at $17.49 billion with exports at $8.91 billion and imports at $8.59 billion. Total PH – EU trade from 2014 to 2018, grew at an average 5.10%; exports by 7.32%, and imports by 3.02%.

The top Philippine exports to the EU on the industrial side were semiconductor and electronic products, vessels for transport and aero parts. On the other hand, top Philippine food exports to the EU were tunas, desiccated coconuts, prepared pineapples and pineapple juice, biscuits and pastries, and sardines.

Exporters interested to attend this information session on the EU REX System can contact Maria Jaena P. Go-Aco at email: mariajaenagoaco@dti.gov.ph or telephone number 632 4653300 local 228.♦

Date of Release: 7 August 2019