RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/LIC/M/6
3November 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-4798)
Committee onImport Licensing
MINUTES OFTHE MEETING HELD ON15OCTOBER 1997
Chairman: Mr.Tomasz Jodko (Poland)
1. TheCommittee onImport Licensing helditssixthmeeting on15October 1997. Theagenda
proposed forthemeeting, contained inWTO/AIR/689, wasadopted asfollows:
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A. Notifications under Articles 1.4(a) and/or 8.2(b)................... ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. 1
B. Notifications under Article 7.3............................... 2
C. Notifications under Article 5................................ 3
D. Draft report (1997) totheCouncil forTrade inGoods ................ 3
E. Other business ......................................... 3
- Consolidated public notice -proposal byKorea
F. Tentative dates formeetings in1998 ........................... 4
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A. Notifications under Articles 1.4(a) and/or 8.2(b) (Publications and/or Legislation)
2. TheChairman saidthatsince thelastmeeting, theSecretariat hadreceived notifications under
Articles1.4(a)and/or8.2(b),fromAustralia,Bahrain,Bolivia,Fiji,India,LiechtensteinandSwitzerland.
Thenotifications were circulated intheG/LIC/N/1/- series. Copies ofpublications andlawsand
regulations referred tointhenotifications wereavailable forconsultation intheSecretariat. Hedrew
attention totheunsatisfactory situation withrespect tothesenotifications where only44Members (EC
andMember States counted asone)hadsubmitted notifications, andrequested those Members that
hadnotyetprovided anyinformation concerning theirlaws, regulations andpublications relevant to
licensing tosubmit theirnotifications without further delay.
3. Therepresentative ofKorea informed theCommittee thattherules andinformation relating
toimport licensing procedures applicable inKorea asprovided intheForeign Trade Actandits
accompanying regulations hadbeenamended effective 1March 1997 andhadbeenpublished inthe
Official Government Gazette. Theimport licensing system formonitoring foreign trade trends had
been abolished bythese revisions withaview tostreamlining import procedures. More detailed
information onthese changes would benotified totheCommittee later.G/LIC/M/6
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4. TheCommittee tooknoteofthestatement andthenotifications made.
B. Notifications under Article 7.3(Replies toQuestionnaire onImport Licensing Procedures)
5. TheChairman informed theCommittee thatsince thelastmeeting, thefollowing 10Members
hadsubmitted replies totheQuestionnaire: Australia; Chile; European Communities; Hong Kong,
China; Liechtenstein; Mali; Slovenia; South Africa; Switzerland andUganda. Therelevant notifications
hadbeencirculated intheG/LIC/N/3/- series. Inaddition tothenotifications listed intheAirgram
convening themeeting, theCommittee hadrecently received twonotifications fromCanada andPoland,
which hadalready beencirculated inEnglish andwhich would besubject toreview atthenextmeeting.
TheChairman saidthatcompliance ofMembers withthenotification obligation under thisprovision
toowasunsatisfactory. Despite theannual deadline of30September tosubmit replies tothe
Questionnaire,onlyatotalof44Members(ECandMemberStatescountedasone)hadthusfarsubmitted
notifications. Thereplies totheQuestionnaire received thusfarincluded notifications from11Members
in1995, 22in1996 andonly19in1997. Stressing theimportance ofnotifications fortheeffective
implementation andfunctioning oftheAgreement, heurged Members thathadnotyetsubmitted replies
totheQuestionnaire todosowithout further delay.
6. Therepresentative ofPoland agreed withtheChairman 'sproposal thatPoland 'srecently
submitted notification bereviewed atthenextmeeting andsaidthatherdelegation would respond to
anyqueries onthenotification when these were received byherdelegation inwriting. Explaining
thedelay insubmitting thenotification, shesaidthattheoriginal intention ofherdelegation wasto
submit thereplies totheQuestionnaire together withPoland 'snewlawsonforeign trade. However,
asitbecame evident thatthenewlawswould notenterintoforce before 1998, itwasdecided tosubmit
thereplies totheQuestionnaire togivedetails ofitsimport licensing procedures astheypresently stood.
Themodifications toimport licensing procedures introduced bythenewlawswould benotified tothe
Committee induecourse.
7. Therepresentative ofNewZealand appreciated theresponses provided byKorea toquestions
posed byhisdelegation attheprevious meeting (circulated indocument G/LIC/Q/KOR/4) andsaid
thattheywere being studied byhisauthorities. Henoted thatneither Bulgaria norJapan hadyet
answered thequestions puttothem concerning theirnotifications1,andlooked forward toreceiving
these responses assoonaspossible.
8. Therepresentative ofJapan saidthatwritten responses toquestions raised byNewZealand
atthelastmeeting would begiven assoonashisdelegation received them from hiscapital.
9. Therepresentative ofNorway informed theCommittee thatnochanges hadbeenmade tothe
import licensing system ofNorway in1997and,therefore, thereplies totheQuestionnaire circulated
indocuments G/LIC/N/3/NOR/1 andCorr.1 stillremained valid. Anotification tothiseffect would
besubmitted shortly.
10. Therepresentative oftheUnited States reserved therighttoraisequestions onthenotifications
prior tothenextmeeting inwriting.
11. TheCommittee tooknoteofthenotifications andstatements.
1Thequestionsposed byNewZealandconcer ningthenotificationsbyBulgariaandJapan areindocument sG/LIC/Q/BGR/1
andG/LIC/Q/JPN/1, respectively.G/LIC/M/6
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C. Notifications under Article 5(institution ofnewimport licensing procedures orchanges)
12. TheChairman informed theCommittee thatsincethelastmeeting, notifications under Article 5
hadbeenreceived from theEuropean Communities, Liechtenstein, South Africa andSwitzerland.
Thenotifications hadbeencirculated intheG/LIC/N/2/- series.
13. Therepresentative oftheUnited States reserved therighttoraisequestions onthenotifications
prior tothenextmeeting inwriting.
14. TheCommittee tooknoteofthenotifications andthestatement.
D. Draft Report (1997) totheCouncil forTrade inGoods
15. TheChairman drew attention tothedraftreport oftheCommittee covering itsactivities in
1997which hadbeencirculated indocument G/LIC/W/8 forconsideration andadoption atthepresent
meeting andsaidthattheinformation inthereport would beupdated totakeintoaccount notifications
received bytheSecretariat upto6November 1997.
16. TheCommittee agreed toadopt itsReport totheCouncil forTrade inGoods2.
E. Other business
- Consolidated public notice -proposal byKorea
17. Therepresentative ofKorea informed theCommittee ofthesystem ofConsolidated Public
Notice ofKorea based onArticle 15oftheForeign Trade Act,whereby import licensing procedures
applicable tospecific items fortheprotection ofhuman, animal andplantlifeorhealth, public morals,
environment, safety andsecurity scattered among some 53individual lawswereconsolidated according
totheHScodeoftheitembytheKorean Ministry ofTrade, Industry andEnergy. Asfortheoperation
oftheConsolidated Public Notice, competent government agencies responsible forthespecified items
subject tothe53individual lawssubmitted totheMinistry materials onexport andimport procedures
oftheitems concerned. After reviewing andmaking adjustments ofthose submitted materials, the
Ministry announced theConsolidated Public Notice oftheitems eachquarter before itwasimplemented.
Iftheimport licensing procedure foranitemprescribed intheindividual lawwasnotinconsistent with
theConsolidated Public Notice, orifthelicensing procedure foraspecific itemwasnotstipulated
inanindividual law,thatwhich wasstipulated intheConsolidated Public Notice prevailed. This
enhanced transparency andpredictability oflicensing procedures, facilitated theidentification ofthe
import andexport procedure foraspecific itembysimply referring theHScodeoftheitem, and
eliminated anyinconvenience caused byseparate export andimport regulations operated bydifferent
government authorities. TheAgreement onImport Licensing Procedures required eachMember to
notify itsimport licensing procedures totheCommittee. TheCommittee reviewed these notifications
withaviewtoenhancing transparency andpredictability, andpromoting thesmooth flowofinternational
tradethrough simplification ofunnecessary administrative procedures. Ascould beseenfromthereview
ofnotifications sofar,import licensing procedures ofeachMember werescattered throughout many
individual regulations, thusmaking itdifficult tounderstand theprocedures applicable toaspecific
item, causing inconvenience toexporters andimporters, anddisrupting thesmooth flowofinternational
trade.HisdelegationproposedthatMembersconsideradoptingasystemsimilartoKorea'sConsolidated
Public Notice. Korea alsoproposed thattheCommittee review thissystem withaviewtorecommending
ittoMembers, andconsider drawing upanotification format tonotify eachMember 'simplementation
totheCommittee. Korea would continue toencourage other Members toadopt thissystem inthis
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Committee andinotherrelevant fora,including theconsultations ontradefacilitation. Korea waswilling
toprovide detailed information toMembers upon request.3
18. TheCommittee tooknoteofthestatement.
F. Tentative dates formeetings in1998
19. Thefollowing twodates areforeseen forthetwomeetings oftheCommittee in1998 onthe
understanding thatadditional meetings would beconvened ifnecessary: 24April 1998 (10a.m.) and
6October 1998 (10a.m.).
3Theproposal byKorea wascirculated indocument G/LIC/W/9.