WHEREAS, the GSTP aims to promote and sustain mutual trade, foster collective self-reliance and enhance economic cooperation among developing member-countries of the Group of 77 through exchanges of trade concessions;

WHEREAS, the participation of the Philippines in the First Round of Trade Negotiations under the GSTP following its launching during the GSTP Ministerial Meeting held in Brazil on 19-23 May 1986 and its conclusion at the Belgrade Ministerial Meeting in April 1988 resulted in an exchange of direct tariff concessions with South Korea and India;

WHEREAS, the Philippine concessions have not been implemented pending the Philippine Government ™s ratification of the Agreement and the deposit of the instrument of the ratification with the Agreement ™s depository, the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;

WHEREAS, the Agreement on the Global System of Trade Preferences Among Developing Countries was finally ratified by the Philippine Senate on 02 September 1991 and the instrument of ratification subsequently deposited with the depository on 24 February 1992;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS, President of the Philippines, by pursuant to the powers vested in me under Section 402 of the Tariff and Customs Code of 1978, as amended, do hereby order that:

SECTION 1. The articles specifically listed in Annex œA  as classified under Section 104 of the Tariff and Customs Code of 1978, as amended, shall be accorded to 10% Margin of Preference (MOP) as shown in Column 9 of said Annex œA . Accordingly, such articles shall be subject to the Preferential Tariffs indicated in Columns 10-14 of Annex œA .

SEC. 2. In the event that any subsequent changes are made in the basic Philippine rate of duty on any of the articles listed in Annex œA , such articles shall be automatically accorded the corresponding MOP indicated in Column 9 of said Annex œA .

SEC. 3. The MOP indicated in Column 9 of Annex œA  shall apply only to imports from participants in the Agreement on the GSTP as defined in Article 1 (a) thereof.

SEC. 4. After the effective date of this Order, all the above-described articles entered or withdrawn from warehouses in the Philippines for consumption shall be subject to qualification under the Rules of Origin as prescribed in the Agreement on the GSTP.

SEC. 5. This Order shall take effect on 1 January 1994.

Done in the City of Manila, this 27th day of DECEMBER, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Three.

(Sgd.) FIDEL V. RAMOS
President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) TEOFISTO T. GUINGONA, JR.
Executive Secretary