ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1919 



How to Ship to the Philippines 



Being an open letter to the exporters of the United States 



By A. B. Crfgap, General Manager of the Luzon Brokerage Co., Inc. 



If this information is carefully impressed 

 in your shipping department, there will re- 

 sult a great saving to yourself and your clients 

 in the Philippine Islands, in addition to the 

 satisfaction that will be experienced by your 

 Philippine connection which is sure to secure 

 for you additional business. 



It is a positive fact that merchants of the 

 Philippine Islands have been caused the loss 

 of many thousands of dollars through either 

 the lack of knowledge regarding simple re- 

 quirements of the Philippine Government 

 with reference to documents, or carelessness 

 on the part of shippers in the United States. 



Customs regulations, especially those per- 

 taining to documents required by the customs 

 authority, are simple and, if followed by the 

 shipper, no inconvenience or loss would be 

 sustained by the importer. 



DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE 



All merchandise imported into the Phil- 

 ippine Islands is delivered by the carrier to 

 the Collector of Customs at the port of de- 

 barkation, and is delivered by the Collector 

 of Customs to the lawful owner thereof, who 

 must present, to establish this ownership, 

 a properly indorsed "negotiable bill of lading" 

 and the Collector of Customs is responsible 

 under bond to make delivery to such lawful 

 owner. 



It is, therefore, most important that the 

 importer have in his possession, upon arrival 

 of the merchandise, a properly indorsed bill 

 of lading. Not having this, in order to obtain 

 possession of his goods, he is compelled, first, 

 to state under oath that such bill of lading 

 has not been received, and second, in lieu 

 of it, file a Fidelity Bond for the value of the 

 goods including freight and an additional 

 10 per cent. 



These bonds must be furnished by a surety 

 company recognized by the Philippine Gov- 

 ernment, or cash. Individual sureties may 

 be accepted but, the formalities, under the 

 laws of the Philippine Islands, make this 

 almost impossible. With one exception, 

 it is hardly necessary to state what consti- 

 tutes a negotiable bill of lading, and that is: 

 Importers doing business in the United States 

 and in the Philippine Islands very often con- 

 sign goods to order, being of the impression 

 that their office in the Philippine Islands 

 may sign for their United States office. This 

 cannot be done unless a power of attorney is 

 given for that specific purpose, a copy of 

 which must be on file with the Collector of 

 Customs. Bills of lading of this nature must 

 be returned to the United States for their 

 indorsement, thus necessitating a bond for 

 its later production, properly indorsed. 



It is very important that documents should 

 accompany the shipments, either by the same 

 steamer, or a steamer which proceeds the 

 shipment. There is now being operated, 

 established from the Pacific coast, a service 

 from San Francisco to Manila, via Honolulu, 

 direct, of twenty-three days. Undoubtedly, 

 such a service will either leave Vancouver or 

 Seattle. Obviously, documents which do not 

 accompany these steamers will be from ten 

 to fifteen days late, as the ordinary steamer 

 is thirty days making the trip. In case 

 of this kind, where the documents do not 

 accompany the steamers, bonds will always 

 be required at, not only, an additional cost 

 to the importer but a considerable confusion 

 in effecting delivery which must be made 

 from the steamer's manifest which gives 

 only the packages in general terms. 



CLEARANCE AND DELIVERY OF IMPORTED 

 MERCHANDISE 



In order to obtain delivery of imported, 



merchandise into the Philippine Islands, 

 there must be filed with the Collector of Cus- 

 toms an entry, in duplicate, which must be 

 accompanied with the bill of lading and two 

 copies of invoices. 



The United States Tariff Law pertaining 

 to the Philippine Islands prescribes, under 

 section 16, the following: 



INVOICES 



"SEC. 16. That all invoices of imported 

 articles, goods, wares, or merchandise shall 

 state the true value thereof in the currency 

 of the place or country from whence imported, 

 or, if purchased, in the currency actually 

 paid therefor, shall contain a correct descrip- 

 tion of such articles, goods, wares, or merchan- 

 dise, with true numbers, weights, and quanti- 

 ties, in the tariff terms of this act, and shall 

 be made in quadruplicate and signed by the 

 owner or shipper, if the merchandise has been 

 actually purchased, or by the manufacturer 

 or owner thereof, if the same has been pro- 

 cured otherwise than by purchase, or by the 

 duly authorized agent of such purchaser, 

 manufacturer, or owner. 



These invoices may be in four forms: 



(1) For dutiable merchandise whether 

 coming from the United States or foreign 

 ports, where the value is more than one hun- 

 dred dollars ($100.00). U. S. currency, the 

 invoice must be presented to a United States 

 consul, vice-consul, collector of customs, or 

 commercial agent of the United States, of 

 the consul district, in which the merchandise 

 was manufactured, purchased or shipped from. 



(2) If the merchandise is of the growth, 

 product, or manufacture of the United States 

 as provided for in section 12 of the United 

 States Tariff Law pertaining to the Philip- 

 pine Islands: 



"SEC. 12. That all articles, except rice, 

 the growth, product, or manufacture of the 

 United States and its possessions to which 

 the customs tariff in force in the United States 

 is applied and upon which no drawback of 

 customs duties has been allowed therein going 

 into the Philippine Islands shall hereafter 

 be admitted therein free of customs duty 

 when the same are shipped directly from the 

 country of origin to the country of destina- 

 tion: provided, that direct shipment shall in- 

 clude shipment in bond through foreign ter- 

 ritory contiguous to the United States. Said 

 articles shall be as originally packed without 

 having been opened or in any manner changed 

 in condition: provided, however, that in 

 having been opened or in any manner changed 

 such articles shall become unpacked while 

 en route by accident, wreck, or other casual- 

 ty, or so damaged as to necessitate their 

 repacking, the same shall be admitted free 

 of duty upon satisfactory proof that the un- 

 packing occurred through accident, or neces- 

 sity, and that the merchandise involved is 

 the identical merchandise originally shipped 

 from the United States, or its possessions as 

 hereinbefore provided, and that its condi- 

 tion has not been changed except for such 

 damage as may have been sustained." 



A commercial invoice having a certificate 

 of origin made a part thereof and signed, 

 shall be presented as prescribed by Customs 

 Administrative Circular No. 626. 



"PAR. III. The original and duplicate 

 invoices for merchandise the growth, prod- 

 uct or manufacture of the United States, 

 shall have the following certificate printed, 

 written, typewritten, or stamped thereon: 



"I hereby certify that the above-described 

 articles are of the growth, product, or manu- 



facture of the United States, or its possessions, 

 and that no drawback of import duties has 

 been or will be claimed thereon, and that this 

 invoice is true and correct in all particulars." 

 "This certificate shall be signed on both 

 original and duplicate invoices by the manu- 

 facturer, seller, or consignor of the merchan- 

 dise, or by a duly authorized agent of such 

 seller, manufacturer, or consignor, and both 

 invoices (except for shipments by post) 

 shall be mailed to the consignee of the mer- 

 chandise for filing with the customs entry 

 pertaining to the importation." 



(3) Importation of foreign merchandise 

 the value of which is less than one hundred 

 dollars ($100.00), a commercial invoice with- 

 out the consular certificate is sufficient. 



(4) Importation from the United States 

 where the value is less than ten dollars ($10.00) 

 and the Collector of Customs is satisfied that 

 the merchandise referred to is subject to "Free 

 Entry", under section 12, the certificate 

 referred to before is not required. 



Many exporters in the United States seem 

 to be of the impression that foreign goods, 

 which have been imported into the United 

 States and duty paid upon their entry, are 

 "free of duty" upon importation into the 

 Philippine Islands. This is not the case. 

 All foreign merchandise imported into the 

 Philippine Islands is subject to duty regard- 

 less of the fact that it may have paid duty 

 upon entry into the United States. 



One of the greatest sources of loss of the 

 Philippine merchants on foreign merchandise 

 imported from the United States is from the 

 fact that importers in the United States will 

 ship foreign merchandise together with do- 

 mestic merchandise in one invoice and fail 

 to make notation of this on their invoices, 

 and in the majority of cases, even certify 

 that the entire invoice is ol American origin, 

 or manufacture. In cases of this kind, the 

 importer is subjected to a fine of from one 

 to five times the duty which, in almost every 

 case, at least the minimum, is imposed. In 

 addition to this loss caused to the importer, 

 by oversight or carelessness on the part of 

 the shipper, the shipper is naturally placed 

 under suspicion and all importations coming 

 from him are most carefully scrutinized. 



It should not be necessary to call the ship- 

 pers' attention to the necessity of proper pack- 

 ing. It is, however, a fjct that shippers in 

 the United States ship merchandise in the 

 poorest containers of any shipper in the world. 

 They do not seem to realize that this mer- 

 chandise must travel many thousands of 

 miles and in many cases be handled a num- 

 ber of times. Their shipping department is 

 in the habit of making shipments to local 

 points with one or two handlings, which does 

 not require heavy packing. It is strongly 

 recommended that, in all shipments where 

 the contents are of any appreciable value, 

 an export packing be used. In other words, 

 a packing which is especially heavy for for- 

 eign shipments. 



Another very important matter is that of 

 marking. Marks should be plain in big 

 letters. If stencils are used, they should be 

 placed at least on two sides of a package. 

 Ninety eight per cent of unclaimed merchan- 

 dise which is sold in the Philippine Islands 

 annually, and which runs into thousands of 

 dollars, is because the marks have been rub- 

 bed off, or so mutilated that they can not be 

 read, or that the merchandise has been pack- 

 ed insufficiently and cannot be identified 

 when it arrives in the Philippine Islands. 



If the requirements referred to herein are 

 carefully followed, it will certainly result in 

 a. greater volume of business for those ship- 

 pers. Nothing will increase business more 

 than the complete satisfaction of clients and 

 the correctness of documents, and properly 

 packed merchandise, is probably the cause 

 of more business than any other factor. 

 When competition is keen, prices are about 

 the same from one importer as another and 

 service alone will increase the business. 



