Customs puts China plywood-smuggling on chopping block

The Bureau of Customs (BoC) said illegal imports of wood, mostly coming from China, will not be allowed to continue hurting the plywood manufacturing sector, which local wood producers claim employs over 30,000 people. Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon assured the Philippine Wood Producers Association (PWPA) that smugglers will be held accountable. The PWPA said rampant smuggling of cheaper wood from China has cut into 25 percent of the local plywood market. “We will not allow these smugglers and their cohorts in government to go on with their illegal activities…(N)ot only is the government losing much needed revenues because of their illicit operations, but it has also placed the country’s plywood manufacturing industry at a great disadvantage," Biazon said. The PWPA informed Biazon that each month 200 to 450 forty-foot container loads of sub-standard plywood got shipped in from China since April last year. PWPA estmates that during the first half of the year, 73,608 cubic meters of plywood had been exported from China to the Philippines—roughly equivalent to 1,477 forty-foot containers. The group said for every container load of illegally imported plywood that enters the country from China, 16 workers in the local plywood industry lose their jobs. Over 30 plywood mills in the Philippines directly employ over 30,000 Filipinos. Uncollected export tax on logs In a separate report, PWPA claimed that export taxes on falcata logs were also not being collected. PWPA reported that each week, about 100 forty-foot container loads of falcata logs from Surigao Del Sur get exported through the Port of Davao, while about 100 to 150 forty-foot container loads of falcata logs from the Agusan provinces get exported through the Port of Cagayan De Oro. At an average estimated volume of 40 cubic meters per container of falcata, and based on its prevailing market price of US$70 per cubic meter, the value of falcata logs exported each month could easily be worth $2.24-$2.8 million. The Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines prescribes a 20 percent export duty, and so estimated revenue losses for the government in the falcata exports could reach $450,000-$560,000 or about P19.35-P24.08 million each month at an exchange rate of 43 pesos to a dollar. “I am really glad that the private sector like the Philippine Wood Producers Association has stepped forward to help the government in its anti-smuggling campaign," Biazon said. —MRT/ELR, GMA News