MALACAÑAN PALACE
MANILA

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

[ EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 163, January 10, 2003 ]

MODIFYING THE RATES OF IMPORT DUTY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICT) PRODUCTS UNDER THE TARIFF AND CUSTOMS CODE OF 1978 (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1464, AS AMENDED), IN ORDER TO IMPLEMENT THE E-ASEAN FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT

WHEREAS, the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement signed on 24 November 2000 requires ASEAN Member States to eliminate duties and non-tariff barriers on intra-ASEAN trade on ICT products;

WHEREAS, the Agreement commits ASEAN members to an implementation schedule to achieve digital readiness for the region in order to develop the basis for ASEAN's competitiveness into the future, better the lives of their citizens through the application of information and communication technologies and foster the spirit of ASEAN community;

WHEREAS, Section 402 of the Tariff and Customs Code of 1978, as amended, empowers the President, upon the recommendation of the National Economic and Development Authority, to increase, reduce or remove existing protective rates of import duty, as well as to modify the form of duty.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby order:

Section 1. The articles specifically listed in "Annex A" (Information and Communications Technology Products Granted Concession under the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement) hereof, as classified under Section 104 of the Tariff and Customs Code of 1978, as amended, shall be subject to the ASEAN Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) indicated in Column 4 of "Annex A". The ASEAN CEPT rates so indicated shall be accorded to imports coming from ASEAN Member States applying CEPT concession to the same product pursuant to Article 4 of the CEPT Agreement and its Interpretative Notes.ᇈWᑭHIL

Section 2. In the event that any subsequent changes are made in the basic (MFN) Philippine rate of duty on any of the articles listed in "Annex A" to a rate lower than the rate prescribed in Column 4 of "Annex A", such article shall automatically be accorded the corresponding reduced duty.

Section 3. Products eligible for tariff concessions not listed in "Annex A" of this Executive Order, shall be subject to the ASEAN CEPT rates under Executive Order No. 49, Series of 2001, Executive Order No. 234, Series of 2000, Executive Order No. 254, Series of 2000, Executive Order No. 71, Series of 1999, Executive Order No. 487, Series of 1998, and Executive Order No. 453, Series of 1997.

Section 4. From the date of effectivity of this Executive Order, all articles listed in "Annex A" entered into or withdrawn from warehouses in the Philippines for consumption shall be imposed the rates of duty therein prescribed, subject to qualification under the Rules of Origin as provided for in the Agreement on the CEPT Scheme for the AFTA signed on 28 January 1992.

Section 5. All presidential issuances, administrative rules and regulations, or parts thereof, which are contrary or inconsistent with this Executive Order are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

Section 6. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately following its complete publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines.

Done in the City of Manila, this 10th day of January in the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Three.

(Sgd.) GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO

By the President:

(Sgd.) ALBERTO G. ROMULO
Executive Secretary


"Annex A"

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS (ICT) GRANTED CONCESSION UNDER THE e-ASEAN FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT

Hdg. No. H.S.Code Description Applicable ASEAN CEPT RATE (%)
2003
(1) (2) (3) (4)
38.18 3818.00 00 Chemical elements doped for use in electronics, in the form of discs, wafers or similar forms; chemical compounds doped for use in electronics. Free
84.43 Printing machinery, including ink-jet printing machines, other than those of heading No. 84.71; machines for uses ancillary to printing.
- Other printing machinery:
8443.51 00 - - Ink-jet printing machines Free
85.17 Electrical apparatus for line telephony or line telegraphy, including line telephone sets with cordless handsets and telecommunication apparatus for carrier-current line systems or for digital line systems; videophones. Free
- Telephone sets; videophones:
8517.19 --Other
8517.19 10 --- Telephone sets Free
85.19 Turntables (record-decks); record-players, cassette-players and other sound reproducing apparatus, not incorporating a sound recording device. Free
- Other sound reproducing apparatus:
8519.99 -- Other:
8519.99 10 --- Cinematographic sound reproducers Free
85.20 Magnetic tape recorders and other sound recording apparatus, whether or not incorporating a sound reproducing device. Free
8520.90 - Other
8520.90 10 --- Cinematographic sound recording apparatus Free
85.22 Parts and accessories suitable for use solely or principally with the apparatus of headings Nos. 85.19 to 85.21.
8522.90 - Other:
8522.90 10 --- Parts and accessories for cinematographic sound recorders and reproducers Free
85.23 Prepared unrecorded media for sound recording or similar recording of other phenomena, other than products of Chapter 37.
- Magnetic tapes:
8523.11 -- Of a width not exceeding 4 mm:
8523.11 90 ---Other Free
8523.12 -- Of a width exceeding 4 mm but not exceeding 6.5 mm:
8523.12 90 ---Other Free
8523.13 --Of a width exceeding 6.5 mm: Free
8523.13 20 ---In pancake or jumbo forms Free
8523.13 90 ---Other Free
8523.20 - Magnetic discs
8523.20 90 ---Other Free
8523.90 - Other
8523.90 90 ---Other
85.25 Transmission apparatus for radio-telephony, radio-telegraphy, radio-broadcasting or television, whether or not incorporating reception apparatus or sound recording or reproducing apparatus; television cameras; still image video camera's and other video camera recorders.
8525.30 00 - Television cameras Free
85.26 Radar apparatus, radio navigational aid apparatus and radio remote control apparatus.
8526.10 00 - Radar apparatus Free
- Other.
8526.91 00 - - Radio navigational aid apparatus Free
8526.92 00 - - Radio remote control apparatus Free
85.28 Reception apparatus for television, whether or not incorporating radio-broadcast receivers or sound or video recording or reproducing apparatus; video monitors and video projectors.
8528.30 00 - Video projectors Free
85.36 Electrical apparatus for switching or protecting electrical circuits, or for making connections to or in electrical circuits (for example, switches, relays, fuses, surge suppressors, plugs, sockets, lamp-holders, junction boxes), for a voltage not exceeding 1,000 volts.
8536.10 - Fuses
8536.10 10 ---Thermal fuses; glass type fuses Free
8536.50 90 - Other switches:
8536.50 90 - - - Other:
ex 8536.50 90 Electronic AC switches consisting of optically coupled input and output circuits (insulated thyristor AC switches); electronic switches, including temperature protected electronic switches, consisting of a transistor and a logic chip (chip-on-chip technology) for a voltage not exceeding 1,000 volts; electromechanical snap-action switches for a current not exceeding 11 amps Free
ex 8536.50 90 Other 5
- Lamp-holders, plugs and sockets:
8536.69 - - Other.
8536.69 90 - - - Other
ex 8536.69 90 Sockets and other plugs for co-axial cables and printed circuits Free
ex 8536.69 90 Other 5
85.40 Thermionic, cold cathode or photo-cathode valves and tubes (for example, vacuum or vapour or gas-filled valves and tubes, mercury arc rectifying valves and tubes, cathode-ray tubes, television camera tubes).
- Cathode-ray television picture tubes, including video monitor cathode-ray tubes:
8541.11 00 - - Colour Free
8540.20 00 - Television camera tubes; image converters and intensifiers; other photo-cathode tubes Free
8540.40 00 - Data/graphic display tubes, colour, with a phosphor dot screen pitch smaller than 0.4 mm Free
8540.60 00 - Data/graphic display tubes, black and white or other monochrome Free
- Microwave tubes (for example, magnetrons, klystrons, travelling wave tubes, carcinotrons), excluding grid    controlled tubes:
8540.71 00 - - Magnetrons Free
8540.72 00 - - Klystrons Free
- Other valves and tubes:
8540.81 00 - - Receiver or amplifier valves and tubes Free
- Parts:
8540.91 00 - - Of cathode-ray tubes Free
90.01 Optical fibres and optical fibre bundles; optical fibre cables other than those of heading No. 85.44; sheets and plates of polarising material; lenses (including contact lenses), prisms, mirrors and other optical elements, of any material, unmounted, other than such elements of glass not optically worked. Free
9001.10 00 - Optical fibres, optical fibre bundles and cables Free
90.02 Lenses, prisms, mirrors and other optical elements, of any material, mounted, being parts of or fittings for instruments or apparatus, other than such elements of glass not optically worked.
- Objective lenses:
9002.11 00 - - For cameras, projectors or photographic enlargers or reducers Free
90.06 Photographic (other than cinematographic) cameras; photographic flashlight apparatus and flashbulbs other than discharge lamps of heading No. 85.39.
9006.20 00 - Cameras of a kind used for recording documents on microfilm, microfiche or other microforms Free
90.09 Photo-copying apparatus incorporating an optical system or of the contact type and thermo-copying apparatus.
- Electrostatic photo-copying apparatus:
9009.12 00 - - Operating by reproducing the original image via an intermediate onto the copy (indirect process) Free
- Other photo-copying apparatus
9009.22 00 - - Of the contact type Free
9009.30 00 - Thermo-copying apparatus Free
90.10 Apparatus and equipment for photographic (including cinematographic) laboratories (including apparatus for the projection or drawing of circuit patterns on sensitised semi-conductor materials), not specified or included elsewhere in this Chapter; negatoscopes; projection screens.
9010.50 00 - Other apparatus and equipment for photographic (including cinematographic) laboratories; negatoscopes Free
90.13 Liquid crystal devices not constituting articles provided for more specifically in other headings; lasers, other than laser diodes; other optical appliances and instruments, not specified or included elsewhere in this Chapter.
9013.20 00 - Lasers, other than laser diodes Free
90.26 Instruments and apparatus for measuring or checking the flow, level, pressure or other variables of liquids or gases (for example, flowmeters, level gauges, manometers, heat meters), excluding instruments and apparatus of heading No. 90.14,90.15,90.28 or 90.32.
9026.10 - For measuring or checking the flow or level of liquids:
9026.1010 - - - Level gauges for motor vehicles Free
9026.10 90 --- Other Free
9026.20 - For measuring or checking pressure:
9026.20 10 --- Pressure gauges for motor vehicles Free
9026.20 90 ---Other Free

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