The Trade and Market Development Department (TMDD) attended the Technical Writeshop to Finalize the 2022 Philippine Standard Commodity Classification (PSCC) last 02 February 2023 at the Tariff Commission Office in West Avenue, Quezon City.

TMDD actively participated in a series of meetings with the technical working group on commodity classification composed of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Tariff Commission (TC) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in order to appropriately classify coconut and oil palm products, thus obtain accurate trade statistics needed for effective planning and decision making. It was a challenge dealing with the prior years’ data, because several coconut and palm oil products were not appropriately classified and were instead just lumped as “others” with huge trade volume and values.

The first day of the three-day writeshop was dedicated solely for the finalization of coconut and oil palm products where all concerns from the PCA were discussed and resolved during the session.

Among concerns raised were the extraction of new lines for newly-emerged and developed coconut products with an average trade value of around 1million USD in the last three years, misnamed products, incorrect product descriptions, repetitive products, addition of regulated coconut and oil palm products for monitoring purposes, correction to the classification of some products under “nuts,” and the use of the technical terms coconut instead of coco and coconut sap syrup instead of coco honey, respectively.

The revision of the Philippine Standard Commodity Codes (PSCC) happens only every five (5) years, so it is important for TMDD to coordinate the corrections and clarifications before its implementation. It is envisioned that onwards, proper commodity codes shall be used by stakeholders, identified by regulators appropriately, and captured in the trade statistics accordingly. This shall also establish mechanisms for traceability which is a requirement for food safety. A manual on the use of appropriate commodity codes is being prepared by TMDD and shall be made available soonest upon the approval of the 2022 PSCC.