As part of the government’s initiative to improve the trade facilitation in the country by simplifying and harmonizing formalities, procedures, trade related exchange of information and documents from various trade related government agencies, TradeNet was developed to serve as the Philippine National Single Window.

To fully implement the TradeNet platform, the Department of Finance through the TradeNet Project Management Office (PMO) has been exerting joint efforts with concerned agencies for the onboarding of seventy-five (75) Trade Regulatory Government Agencies (TRGAs) in the platform. One of the necessary steps of the onboarding process is the identification of the ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN) code of commodities being regulated by the different trade regulatory government agencies which will be configured in the platform.

The ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature, overseen by the World Customs Organization (WCO), is an eight-digit HS-based commodity nomenclature common among Member States. Further to the eight-digit AHTN, the Philippines assigns alpha-numeric codes to provide for its national tariff lines. These codes are subject to review and revision by the WCO members every four to six years– to simplify nomenclature by considering new products and removing those which proves unnecessary or obsolete.