New National Single Window system mulled

• A proposal for a new National Single Window (NSW) system is being discussed

• The public-private partnership proposal to establish a new NSW system received by the Department of Information and Communications was discussed during two special sessions of the NSW Steering Committee this month

• Trade regulatory agencies have submitted their position papers on the proposal

• The output will be presented to the NSW Steering Committee in June

A proposal for the development of a new National Single Window (NSW) system is being discussed, according to the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

In a statement, the BOC said the public-private partnership (PPP) proposal to establish a new NSW system that was received by the Department of Information and Communications was discussed during the May 3 special session of the NSW Steering Committee, chaired by Finance undersecretary Charlito Martin Mendoza.

The NSW is the platform required in order to connect to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Single Window (ASW). The ASW is a regional initiative to speed up cargo clearance and promote regional economic integration by enabling the electronic exchange of border documents among the 10 ASEAN member states.

Upon instructions of the NSW Steering Committee, BOC convened another special session on May 24 to further discuss and study the proposal.

During this session, the NSW Technical Working Group (TWG) discussed the position papers received from trade regulatory government agencies (TRGAs) after a copy of the PPP proposal was circulated for their review and comments.

The final output of the TWG discussion will be formally presented to the NSW Steering Committee in June.

Currently, four TRGAs are already using TradeNet while 18 additional TRGAs have been onboarded onto the staging/testing environment.

TradeNet serves as the country’s NSW, replacing the NSW Phase 1, which is currently operated by BOC and which was launched in 2010 and deployed in 2011. In 2017, the NSW Steering Committee issued a resolution to adopt TradeNet as the new NSW instead.

TradeNet is a platform for the automated and integrated licensing, permit, clearance, and certification system for TRGAs. It aims to connect 73 TRGAs to make trade facilitation processes interoperable and efficient.

The four TRGAs fully onboarded to TradeNet are BOC, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Biodiversity Management Bureau, and National Tobacco Administration.