An executive order that lowered tariff rates on petrochemicals from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 7-10% to 5% has been issued in Philippines. Executive Order No. 486, dated Jan. 12, reduced the duties on 41 tariff lines covering raw materials for plastic products and finished goods, including polymers of ethylene, propylene or of other olefins, styrene and vinyl chloride or of other halogenated olefins.
EO 486 supersedes Executive Order 161, which suspended the imposition of a five-percent duty on these products, which should have been done starting 2003 under the Common Effective Preferential Tariff regime of the ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement.
It provides that tariffs would revert to the EO 161 levels once a local naphtha cracker plant starts commercial operation as determined by the Cabinet-level Committee on Tariffs and Related Matters.
20-Jan-06 
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