In-person WTO workshop on import licensing and notifications concludes in Geneva

In his opening remarks, the Chair of the Committee on Import Licensing, Mr Nat Tharnpanich of Thailand, underlined that import licensing has been a trade policy instrument used by most governments to manage trade and achieve various public policy objectives. Included in the negotiation agenda of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) as early as the 1970s, import licensing became one of the WTO’s multilateral trade agreements as a result of the Uruguay Round.

“It goes without saying that transparency has been one of the key pillars of the multilateral trading system since the establishment of the GATT over 70 years ago. Detailed provisions to ensure transparency have been incorporated into almost all WTO agreements, including the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures,” said Mr Tharnpanich. “However, the notification situation under this Agreement has not been very encouraging. Up to now, we still have 13 members that have not notified anything under this Agreement since they joined the WTO. Furthermore, many members have not updated their import licensing notifications for years or have just partially fulfilled their notification obligations.”

To identify the reasons behind such a low compliance rate, the Committee on Import Licensing, with the support of the WTO Secretariat, has conducted work in this regard, such as this in-person workshop. The Chair noted that the WTO stands ready to extend technical support on this issue and is open to considering the organizing of regional or bilateral technical assistance as appropriate in the future.

Participants in the workshop were presented with an overview of the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures and carried out practical exercises to prepare notifications under various articles of the Agreement. They also engaged in an experience-sharing session, where government officials from Cambodia, Mauritius, Myanmar, the Philippines and Hong Kong, China addressed challenges faced in import licensing notification and best practices.

The presentations highlighted some of the main difficulties behind the transparency exercise, such as inadequate or insufficient knowledge and awareness of relevant government agencies on how to properly draft notifications, lack of human resources to maintain the quality and sustainability of the notification process, and non-existent publication or update of import licensing requirements, as well as fees and charges in official governmental websites.

Some of the presentations encouraged participants to embark on the notification process as a first step that can be improved over time, to practise regularly and to prepare at an early stage when drafting a notification, bearing in mind that the process can be burdensome at the start but gets easier once it is under way. It was also suggested that participants establish focal points and seek advice from the WTO Secretariat when needed.

Read more on import licensing here.

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