REPLIES TO
QUESTIONNAIRE ON IMPORT LICENSING PROCEDURES[1]
NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE 7.3 OF
THE AGREEMENT ON IMPORT LICENSING PROCEDURES (2025)
Timor-Leste
The following communication,
dated 11 November 2025, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of
Timor-Leste.
_______________
Timor-Leste does not
operate any general system requiring importation licences in order to import
goods. However, legal and natural persons importing or exporting goods on a
commercial basis are required to obtain business authorization issued by the
Registry and Business Verification Service (SERVE: Portuguese abbreviation), in
accordance with Decree-Law No. 34/2017 of 27 September 2017 on
Licensing of Economic Activities.
Annex I to Annex III of
this Decree-Law have set out the types of business activities based on the
lower, medium and higher risk criteria. Importation of goods classified under
the lower risk will automatically be granted an authorization. Meanwhile, for
importation of goods classified under the medium or higher risks, importers are
required to obtain sectoral licences based on business activities, thus, they
are subject to non-automatic commercial licences. Article 10 of Decree-Law No. 26/2017
of 17 May 2017 on Commercial Registry sets out the criteria and information
requirements for obtaining a commercial licence.
SERVE acts as a single
window by receiving applications from businesses. For medium and high-risk
business activities, there are specific licensing procedures set out by various
Ministries and Agencies. Once applications are received, SERVE will send the
documents to the relevant Ministries to obtain an authorization/ a
recommendation / a licence subject to the sectoral requirements. After the
authorization of the sectoral Ministries, applications are lodged with SERVE to
approve Exercise Activity (AEA) to obtain business authorization. Once business
licences are approved, importation of goods could be made immediately. Under
MCI, there are two new Decree Laws being enacted to provide sectoral licences
for commercial and industrial activities namely Sectoral licensing of
commercial activities (Decree Law No. 89/2023) and Industrial Licensing (Decree
Law No. 90/2023).
[1] See _G/LIC/3, Annex, for the questionnaire.