The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Monday released an advisory stating that the country will not be able to implement the European Union’s (EU) new certification of origin for exporters by this year.

According to the DTI Export Marketing Bureau, the effective application date of the REX or registered exporters system in the country will depend on when the Bureau of Customs (BoC), a vital agency for complying with the new EU requirement, is able to officially relay all the necessary information to the European Commission.

The DTI arm also said the BoC is still in the process of completing two pre-requisites for the application of the system.

Since the system will not be implemented this year, DTI called on the Filipino exporter community to advise their EU importers that the global transition period is until 30 June 2020, and that this will allow the Customs bureau to continue with the current system of issuing the GSP Form A.

“Once the Philippines implements the REX system, the self-certification on ‘statements on origin’ by the Philippine exporters themselves will progressively, for a maximum of 1.5 years, replace the certificates of origin Form A issued by BoC and invoice declarations made out by economic operators of low value GSP exports and will completely replace the current system of origin certification by 30 June 2020,” according to the advisory.

The Registered Exporters system is a new self-certification system of origin of goods, a shift from the previous system’s longer and more costly process of acquiring certificates of origin from the government. It has been in application under EU’s Generalized System of Preference scheme since 1 January 2017.