The Unlawyer

On several occasions I have taken note of the pleasant fact that Philippine bookstores charge some of the lowest prices for imported English-language books in southeast Asia, thanks in no small part to a wise decision made by the government some 50 years ago not to impose tariffs on these materials. Apart from this, any book sold in the Philippines continues to be exempt from the much-reviled 12 percent value-added tax, proof that the government does get things right from time to time.

This privileged position, however, that books now possess in this country is in jeopardy.

The Philippine book trade, not to mention a fair number of readers as well, is up in arms at a recent decision by the Philippines’ customs bureau to impose duties on all books imported into the country, in clear violation of a treaty ratified by the Senate that exempts them from such imposts.

For those of you who are interested, this is the full text of Article I, Section 1 of the Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials, otherwise known as the Florence Treaty of 1950, that compels contracting states not to impose customs duties on books:

“The contracting States undertake not to apply customs duties or other charges on, or in connection with, the importation of:

1. Books, publications and documents, listed in Annex A to this Agreement;
2. Educational, scientific and cultural materials, listed in Annexes B, C, D and E to this Agreement;

which are the products of another contracting States, subject to the conditions laid down in those annexes.”

Section 2 of the same Article defines what the exceptions are:

“The provisions of paragraph 1 of this article shall not prevent any contracting State from levying on imported materials;

1. Internal taxes or any other international charges of any kind, imposed at the time of importation or subsequently, not exceeding those applied directly or indirectly to like domestic products;
2. Fees and charges, other than customs duties, imposed by governmental authorities on, or in connection with, importation, limited in amount to the approximate cost of the services rendered, and representing neither an indirect protection to domestic products nor a taxation of imports for revenue purposes.

The Philippines was an original signatory to this treaty, and ratified it 1952. I can’t find the specific resolution by the Senate that signified its concurrence to this treaty but anyone with a copy of the Philippine Treaty Series by the late Haydee Yorac should be able to find it.

It’s rather perplexing that customs and finance officials are willing to expose themselves to charges – administrative ones at the very least – when everyone knows that treaties entered into by the executive department and ratified by the Senate have the force of law. That is, unless they think they can get away with it, and the McSweeney’s article I linked to suggests that their position is anchored in part on their interpretation of Republic Act 8047, Book Publishing Industry Development Act, and of the Florence Treaty itself, which frankly goes against the grain the plain text of these two laws:

“”Likewise, with the Florence Agreement, she argued that only educational books could be considered protected by the U.N. treaty. Customs would henceforth be the arbiter of what was and wasn’t educational.

“”For 50 years, everyone has misinterpreted the treaty and now you alone have interpreted it correctly?” she was asked.

“”Yes,” she told the stunned booksellers.”

RA 8047 clearly expresses the desire of Congress to help develop a viable book publishing industry in the Philippines. That Philippine customs officials have chosen to interpret this law as an implicit repudiation of a treaty when even a cursory examination reveals no intent to regulate the importation of all books simply beggars belief. Haven’t they heard of the rules of statutory construction?

The reason for upsetting such a long-standing rule is obvious: a need for money. The McSweeney’s article I linked to further suggests that the customs bureau needs to make up for a projected shortfall in revenue this year, a prediction that is already coming to pass because of, well, businesses not importing as much stuff as they used to. Books are about the only class of articles regularly imported in quantity in this country that the exciseman hasn’t been able to lay his fingers on, and has thus become a tempting target for all these years.

Be that as it may, it appears that this case would most likely be resolved by the courts, as the duties on the books were paid under protest. In the meantime, however, customs officials will levy their questionable tariff and consumers will, as usual, bear the brunt of these acts.

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I would be much obliged if anyone would furnish me a copy of that Powerpoint presentation delivered by finance undersecretary Espele Sales.