“IT’S a national shame that has to be corrected the soonest,” said former Customs Commissioner Guillermo Parayno once in describing the procedures at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

And the public-private Export Development Council (EDC) has echoed this observation in seeking the issuance of an executive order (EO) that would simplify the cumbersome procedures at the BOC, the Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) reported.

Parayno once told members of the EDC Committee on the Simplification of Trade Procedures of a study showing that the Philippines’s customs procedures were more problematic than those of Laos and Cambodia.

The Philippines ranks No. 128 on the list of countries evaluated on the ease of customs procedures worldwide, he said, putting the country in the league of the poorest in Sub-Saharan Africa, and far below the rankings of dynamic economies in East Asia.

Philexport, which co-chairs the EDC with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said the EO would give the government the legal authority to comply with the provisions of the Revised Kyoto Protocol, which was ratified by the Philippine Senate in 2010.

The exporters group said the RKC, which contains the simplified and harmonized global rules on customs administration, is the fastest course that the country can take in correcting its cumbersome customs practices.

“Most of those rules are not in conflict with Philippine laws and do not need legislation, only an executive order, to jump-start compliance,” Philexport said.

The Senate-approved Articles of Accession to the RKC, he said, was formally deposited to the headquarters of the World Customs Organization in Brussels on February 9, 2010.

The Philippines has a little over a year left to align its local laws to the global customs rules and then start implementing them.

Parayno said a draft EO was almost signed by former President Arroyo before her term expired.

The draft EO was meant to order the EDC and NCC to jointly come out with a national strategy for the country to comply with the global customs rules. It also mandates the establishment of an RKC Compliance Center that will see to it that the customs bureau will actually comply with those rules.

Philexport said some sections of those rules that require legislation have already been included in the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act of 2011, which the House of Representatives has passed on third reading.

The Senate is discussing its version of the same customs reform law.

Central to compliance is the automation of customs procedures and documentation.