REPORT ON THE CURRENT FUNCTIONING OF THE
COMMITTEE ON IMPORT LICENSING

REPORT OF THE CHAIRPERSON

The following report is being submitted by the Chairperson of the Committee on Import Licensing (CIL), Mr Jia Jie LOH, under his own responsibility and at the request of the Chairperson of the Council for Trade in Goods^[1].The report was prepared with the assistance of the Secretariat.

1        Past efforts to improve the work of the Committee

1.1.  In response to the request from the Chairperson of the General Council dated 26 February 2009, the Committee held informal meetings and consultations with Members and discussed ways and means to improve the timeliness and completeness of notifications and other information flows.^[2] The following ideas were shared by Members: (i) develop electronic forms in user friendly formats that could simplify the preparation of notifications; and (ii) simplify procedures and develop clear guidelines as to the kind of information and details to be provided in the notifications.

1.2.  In addition, these discussions were complemented by specific suggestions made by some Members on how to improve compliance with the notification obligations in the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures (ILP). These suggestions included, inter alia:

·              the possibility of requesting technical assistance (TA) from the Secretariat's and/or from other Members;      

·              undertaking a self-review of the notifications that had been already submitted with a view to improving them (e.g., updating the list of products, adjusting the version of the HS nomenclature and reflecting other changes that might have occurred);

·              increasing coordination between the Trade Policy Review Division (TPRD) and the Secretariat staff responsible for the Committee on Import Licensing with a view to including in TPR reports elements such as: (a) identification as to whether or not the Member had submitted its import licensing notifications; (b) identification of the relevant legislation and rules on import licensing; (c) urging Members under review to provide pertinent import licensing materials and indicate if there were outstanding questions by other Members not yet responded to by the Member under review;