Description |
The 2019 Philippine Standard Commodity Classification (PSCC) is the latest revision of the country's commodity classification. lt is a detailed classification of all commodities on imports and exports being used for tariff and statistical purposes. The 2019 PSCC serves as a standard statistical nomenclature for economic analysis as well as for planning and policy formulation; as a standard scheme on commodity groupings or classes necessary for maintaining continuity of existing series on and for international comparability of the country's trade statistics; and as an aid in the implementation of tariff and trade regulations. It is an integration of the 2017 ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN) based on the 2017 Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) issued by the World Customs Organizations (WCO), and the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) Rev. 4, by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSO).
As member state of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines is bound by Article 4 of the ASEAN Agreement on Customs dated 01 March 1997 and the AHTN Protocol signed by member states on the 07 August 2003 to implement the AHTN for all trade transactions for tariff, the collection of statistical data and other purposes. However, the Protocol also states that member states may further sub-divide the AHTN, beyond the 81h digit for the collection of statistical data or other non-tariff purposes. Thus, the 2019 PSCC adhered to the 6-digit level of the HS, and to the 7th and 8th digit codes of the AHTN subheadings. The 9th and 10th digit codes cover commodities of national interest for statistical purposes.
The 2019 PSCC was prepared by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) technical staff and reviewed by the lnteragency Committee on Statistical Standards and Classifications (IACSSC) through its Technical Working Group on Commodity Classification (TWGComC) chaired by the Tariff Commission. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the valuable contribution of the members of the IACSSC and the TWGComC for the development and review of the 2019 PSCC.
The 2019 PSCC was approved by the PSA Board through Resolution No. 10, Series of 2019: "Approving and Adopting the 2019 Philippine Standard Commodity Classification". It is envisioned that the adoption and use of the PSCC by concerned agencies wil greatly enhance the coordination and integration of efforts towards improving the quality of trade statistics in the Philippine Statistical System (PSS). All government offices, agencies and instrumentalities are therefore enjoined to adopt and use the PSCC starting January 2020.
Each commodity or commodity group is identified by a unique code number. For convenience in obtaining aggregates at each level by automatic data processing equipment, the code number of each commodity is so designed that the first two digit identifies the chapter, the first four digits, the heading; the first six digits, the HS subheading; the seven and eight digits refer to the AHTN subheadings and commodity description; and the nine and ten digits codes refer to the commodities which are not in one-to-one correspondence with the AHTN. |