NEWSFLASH

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DUTY FREE SHOPS BANNED FROM SELLING RICE, SUGAR, COFFEE

Manila, Oct. 19, 1997 - Duty-free shops are now prohibited from selling sugar, rice, coffee, corn and cor starch, flour and garlic. The Bureau of Customs issued new rules over the weekend covering the items which have been classified "sensitive agricultural products."

President Ramos signed the Executive Order covering the items last September to avert possible adverse effects on local enterprises.

Covered by the new Customs rules are duty-free shops inside the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga and the Subic Free Port Zone in Zambales. The new customs rules also ban the bringing out of imported goods from the free ports and special zones to be sold to the general public.

The rules are meant to guarantee that the privilege to import goods duty free will not be used as a vehicle to bring in products that will eventually find their way to stores catering to the general public.

There had been numerous complaints from local sugar dealers and manufacturers that the volume of sugar imported for resale by the duty free shops could not have been all bought by duty-free shoppers. There were insinuations that the duty free shops in the two special zones were used for technical smuggling of tax-free sugar into the open market.

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