On May 23, 2022, the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines issued Notice No. 10 of 2022, which formulated regulations related to aquatic product import licensing and took effect immediately. The main contents include:  

(1) The purpose of this notice is to effectively implement the relevant requirements of issuing SPSIC for imported aquatic products in the second quarter. The imported aquatic products in the second quarter shall be subject to customs clearance within 20 days upon arrival at port, and the custom clearance will be taken into one of the bases for identifying qualified suppliers and issuing the next license.  At the same time, bills of lading and proforma invoices should also be required for the application of SPSIC;  

(2) only allows qualified suppliers in imports. Qualified supplier identification requires non-violation of any food safety or import regulations, payment of licensing fees, price-limit trading, unloading and trading in specified places, legitimated origin of products, non-IUU fishing products, allowing inspection and monitoring of aquatic productsby competent department of inspection and quarantine officials to its register refrigerator store; 

(3) To allocate an import quota of not less than 280 tons or 10 containers to qualified importers who apply for SPSIC before June 15, 2022. Qualified importers should indicate ports of entry and final destination when applying for SPSIC, and the Department of Fisheries should process the SPSIC application immediately and submit it to the Secretary for approval;  

(4)Qualified importers shall strictly abide by food safety standards stipulated by laws and relevant regulations, and import quotas shall not be transferred.