RESTRICTED  
  
G/LIC/W/ 56 
 
26 September 2022 
(22-7219) Page: 1/4 
Committee on Import Licensing    
 
 
 
DRAFT REPORT (202 2) OF THE COMMITTEE ON IMPORT LICENSING  
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS  
1.  The Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures (hereinafter "the Agreement") which entered 
into force on 1  January  1995, establishes disciplines on users of import licensing systems with the 
principal objective of ensuring that the procedures applied for granting import licences do not in 
themselves restrict trade. It aims to simplify, clarify and minimize the administrative requirement s 
necessary to obtain import licences.  
 
2.  The Committee on Import Licensing was established to afford Members the opportunity of 
consulting on any matter relating to the operation of the Agreement or the furtherance of its 
objectives. The Committee's Rul es of Procedure, which were approved by the Council for Trade in 
Goods, are contained in document  G/L/147.  
 
3.  All Members of the WTO are ipso facto  members of the Committee. Observer governments in the 
General Council of the WTO have Observer status in t he Committee. The International Monetary 
Fund, the World Bank and UNCTAD have regular observer status in the Committee.  
 
4.  The focus of this report is on the period since the Committee's last annual report (G/L /1406), 
namely 9 October  2021 – 7 October  2022 (hereinafter "the reporting period"). In 202 2, the 
Committee held two formal meetings, on 8 April 2021 (G/LIC/M/5 4), under the chairpersonship of 
Mr. Hsin -lung Hung (Chinese Taipei) , and on 7 October 202 2 ([G/LIC/M/5 5]), under the 
chairpersonship of Mr.  Jia Jie L oh (Singapore).  Both meetings took place in hybrid mode  with in -
person and remote attendance . The Committee also held one informal meeting,  which took place in 
hybrid mode,  on 7 March  2022, under the chairpersonship of Mr. Hsin -lung Hung (Chinese  Taipei). 
On 23 May 2022, through written procedures, the Committee elected Mr. Jia Jie L oh (Singapore)  by 
acclamation as Chairperson of the Committee for 202 2.1 Pursuant to the Committee's Rules of 
Procedure, the officers shall hold office until the end of the first  meeting of the following year.  
 
5.  Pursuant to Articles  1.4(a) and/or 8.2(b) of the Agreement and procedures agreed by the 
Committee, all Members are required to notify their laws, regulations, and administrative procedures 
relevant to im port licensing and to submit copies of any relevant publications or laws and regulations 
upon becoming a WTO  Member. Any subsequent changes to these laws, regulations, and 
administrative procedures are also required to be published and notified. Pursuant t o 
subparagraphs  1-4 of Article  5, Members are also required to notify the institution of new import 
licensing procedures or changes in these procedures to the Committee within 60  days of publication.  
 
6.  During the reporting period, the Committee reviewe d [53] notifications under these 
three  provisions (Annex  I) from the following [14] Members : Argentina; Ecuador; the European 
Union; Hong Kong, China; India; Japan; Republic of Korea; Myanmar; Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 
Seychelles; Thailand; Ukraine; the Uni ted Kingdom ; and the United States .2 
 
7.  Article  5.5 of the Agreement allows Members to submit reverse notifications, where a Member 
considers that another Member has not notified the institution of a licensing procedure or changes 
in the procedures. However, no such reverse notifications have been received within the reporting 
period.  
 
1 [[Ms/Mr ] […] was elected Vice -Chairperson at the 7 October formal Committee meeting .] 
2 [New notifications were received from [WTO Members] ([Notification document symbol] and 
[Notification Document symbol]) after the agenda for the 7 October meeting had closed. These notifications 
were included in this report among the notifications submitted during the review period and they will be 
reviewed at the Committee's next meeting.]  G/LIC/W/ 56 
 
- 2 - 
 
  8.  Article  7.3 of the Agreement requires all Members to provide replies to the Questionnaire on 
Import Licensing Procedures3 by 30  September each year. Dur ing the reporting period, the 
Committee reviewed  [34] notifications (Annex  II) from the following [31] Members : Albania ; 
Argentina; Cambodia ; Chile; Colombia ; Costa Rica ; Cuba; Georgia ; Honduras ; India; Indonesia ; 
Japan ; Kazakhstan ; Republic of Korea ; Mali; Mauritius ; Mexico ; Montenegro ; New Zealand ; 
Nicaragua ; Panama ; Philippines ; Russian Federation ; Seychelles ; Singapore ; Thailand ; Tonga; 
Türkiye ; Ukraine ; United Arab Emirates ; and Uruguay.4 These notifications can be found in doc ument 
series  G/LIC/N/3/.  
 
9.  The Committee has provided a regular forum for exchanging views on notifications submitted by 
Members. Written comments and questions concerning notifications submitted to the Committee 
and/or on import licensing procedures ma intained by Members, and replies thereto, may be found 
in the document series  G/LIC/Q/ -. During the review period, the United States posed questions to 
the Philippines ( G/LIC/Q/PHL/ 7 and G/LIC/Q/PHL/ 9), to Panama ( G/LIC/Q/PAN/1 ), and to Indonesia 
(G/LIC/Q/IDN/4 6). The following Members provided written responses to comments and questions: 
Egypt to the additional question from the European Union (G/LIC/Q/EGY/ 8); the Philippines to the 
follow -up questions from the United States ( G/LIC/Q /PHL/8 ); Indonesia to Japan ( G/LIC/Q/IDN/47 ), 
to Australia ( G/LIC/Q/IDN/49 ) and to the European Union ( G/LIC/Q/IDN/48 ). At the Committee's 
meeting, Members exchanged views on the issues raised.  
10.  In addition, the following Members requested to include i n the agenda specific issues regarding 
other Members' import licensing regimes and measures. At the Committee meeting(s) held during 
the review period, the European Union made an oral statement on Angola's import licensing 
requirements; on Egypt's import l icensing requirements for certain agricultural and processed 
products; on India's importation of pneumatic tyres;  on Indonesia's commodity balancing 
mechanism  and on Thailand's importation of wheat feed. In addition, the European Union and Japan 
made oral statements on Indonesia's import licensing regime for certain textiles and import 
restriction on air conditioners. The United States made an oral statement on China's import licensing 
for certain recoverable materials; Canada made an oral statement on Indi a's quantitative restriction 
on certain pulses, and Japan made a statement on Indonesia's compulsory registration requirement 
by importers of steel products.  Members whose licensing measures had been questioned responded 
at the meeting and other interested  Members also made comments.  
11.  At the Committee meeting held on 8 October  2021, Members approved the establishment of an 
eAgenda for the Committee. The e Agenda was meant to  facilitate the work of delegations and of the 
Secretariat in building the meetin g agenda , including adding items, making relevant documents 
directly available to participants in electronic form , and the sharing of statements via the e Agenda. 
A pilot version of the eAgenda was made available by the Secretariat for delegations' registra tion 
and testing between 6 July and 31 August 2022.  The eAgenda became  operational  as from the 
Committee meeting of 7 October 2022.   
12.  At the informal meeting held on 7 March  2022, the Chairperson updated Members on 
implementation of the eAgenda project for the Committee. The Secretariat made a presentation to 
Members on  an online N/2 notification form, entirely based on the notification template contained in 
document G/LIC/28.  
13.  From October  2021 to October  2022, the Secretariat organized and participated to several 
virtual  and one in -person  activit y focusing on import licensing issues.  Upon the request of the 
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a Member specific technical assistance workshop on import licensing and 
notifications was held in a virtual format in December 2021. On-line presentations and interactive 
workshops were delivered to government officials as part of the e -RTPCs for  Asia and Pacific 
(in English). In addition, training sessions on import licensing were  also presented during the 
Advanced Trade Policy Course (ATPC) in Geneva in 2022.  
_______________  
 
 
3 Annexed to document  G/LIC/3.  
4 [New notifications were received from [WTO Members] ([Notification document symbol] and 
[Notification Document symbol]) after the agenda for the 7 October meeting had closed. These notifications 
were included in this report among the notifications submitted during the review period and they will be 
reviewed  at the Committee's next meeting.]  G/LIC/W/5 6 
 
- 3 - 
 
  ANNEX I: NOTIFICATIONS REVIEWED DURING THE REPORT PERIOD PURSUANT TO 
ARTICLE 1.4(A) AND/OR 8.2(B), ARTICLE 5.1 -5.4 OF THE AGREEMENT1
 
FROM 9 OCTOBER  2020 TO 7 OCTOBER  2021  
MEMBER  DOCUMENT  DATE OF ISSUANCE OF THE 
DOCUMENT  
Argentina  G/LIC/N/2/ARG/28/Add.11  
G/LIC/N/2/ARG/28/Add.12  
G/LIC/N/2/ARG/28/Add.13  
G/LIC/N/2/ARG/28/Add.1 4 22/11/2021  
17/12/2021  
29/07/2022  
13.09.2022  
Ecuador  G/LIC/N/2/ECU/ 2 14/04/2022  
European Union  G/LIC/N/2/EU/13/Corr.1  
G/LIC/N/2/EU/14/Corr.1  
G/LIC/N/2/EU/15/Corr.1  
G/LIC/N/2/EU/16/Corr.1  
G/LIC/N/2/EU/17  
G/LIC/N/2/EU/18  02/11/2021  
02/11/2021  
02/11/2021  
02/11/2021  
02/11/2021  
02/11/2021  
Hong Kong, China  G/LIC/N/2/HKG/18  
G/LIC/N/2/HKG/18/Corr.1  
G/LIC/N/2/HKG/19  
G/LIC/N/2/HKG/20  
G/LIC/N/2/HKG/21  27/01/2022  
17/11/2021  
31/01/2022  
01/08/2022  
17/08/2022  
India G/LIC/N/1/IND/15  
G/LIC/N/2/IND/18  
G/LIC/N/2/IND/19  
G/LIC/N/2/IND/20  
G/LIC/N/2/IND/21  
G/LIC/N/2/IND/22  20/04/2022  
09/02/2022  
09/02/2022  
09/02/2022  
21/04/2022  
21/04/2022  
Japan  G/LIC/N/2/JPN/5  01/07/2022  
Korea, Republic of  G/LIC/N/2/KOR/42  
G/LIC/N/2/KOR/42/Corr.1  
G/LIC/N/2/KOR/4 3 
G/LIC/N/2/KOR/4 4 
G/LIC/N/2/KOR/4 5 
G/LIC/N/2/KOR/4 6 
G/LIC/N/2/KOR/46/Add.1  
G/LIC/N/2/KOR/4 7 
G/LIC/N/2/KOR/4 8 25/10/2021  
09/12/2021  
25/10/2021  
25/10/2021  
25/10/2021  
25/10/2021  
09/12/2021  
25/10/2021  
25/10/2021  
Myanmar  G/LIC/N/2/MMR/4  
G/LIC/N/2/MMR/5  
G/LIC/N/2/MMR/6  
G/LIC/N/2/MMR/7  06/12/2021  
14/02/2022  
14/03/2022  
14/04/2022  
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia  G/LIC/N/2/SAU/3  19/10/2021  
Seychelles  G/LIC/N/2/SYC/2 -3 20/01/2022  
Thailand  G/LIC/N/2/THA/6  02/05/2022  
Ukraine  G/LIC/N/2/UKR/14  
G/LIC/N/2/UKR/15  
G/LIC/N/2/UKR/16  
G/LIC/N/2/UKR/17  
G/LIC/N/2/UKR/18  
G/LIC/N/2/UKR/19  
G/LIC/N/2/UKR/20  
G/LIC/N/2/UKR/21  16/12/2021  
16/12/2021  
16/12/2021  
17/12/2021  
17/12/2021  
17/12/2021  
17/12/2021  
11/01/2022  
United Kingdom  G/LIC/N/2/GBR/13  
G/LIC/N/2/GBR/13/Corr.1  
G/LIC/N/2/GBR/14  
G/LIC/N/2/GBR/15  03/02/2022  
03/02/2022  
29/03/2022  
28/06/2022  
United States  G/LIC/N/2/USA/6  15.09.2022  
 
1 [New notifications were received from [WTO Members] ([Notification document symbol] and 
[Notification Document symbol]) after the agenda for the 7 October meeting had closed. These notifications 
were included in this re port among the notifications submitted during the review period and they will be 
reviewed at the Committee's next meeting.]  G/LIC/W/ 56 
 
- 4 - 
 
  ANNEX  II: NOTIFICATIONS REVIEWED DURING THE REPORT PERIOD  
PURSUANT TO ARTICLE  7.3 OF THE AGREEMENT1 
FROM 9 OCTOBER  2021 TO 7 OCTOBER  2022 
MEMBER  DOCUMENT  
(YEAR NOTIFIED FOR)  DATE OF ISSUANCE 
OF THE DOCUMENT  
Albania  G/LIC/N/3/ALB/11  2021 10/12/2021  
Argentina  G/LIC/N/3/A RG/18 2022 26/09/2022 
Cambodia  G/LIC/N/3/KHM/4  2019 20/01/2022  
Chile G/LIC/N/3/CHL/9  2022 29/03/2022  
Colombia  G/LIC/N/3/COL/15  2022 20/01/2022  
Costa Rica  G/LIC/N/3/CRI/18  2021 19/11/2021  
Cuba G/LIC/N/3/CUB/11  2021 12/10/2021  
Georgia  G/LIC/N/3/GEO/9  2022 03/02/2022  
Honduras  G/LIC/N/3/HND/13  2022 07/04/2022  
India G/LIC/N/3/IND/21  2021 20/01/2022  
Indonesia  G/LIC/N/3/IDN/13  2021 18/03/2022  
Japan  G/LIC/N/3/JPN/20  2021 14/02/2022  
Kazakhstan  G/LIC/N/3/KAZ/6  2021 20/01/2022  
Korea, Republic of  G/LIC/N/3/KOR/14  2021 25/10/2021  
Mali G/LIC/N/3/MLI/11  2022 04/08/2022  
Mauritius  G/LIC/N/3/MUS/11  2021 18/01/2022  
Mexico  G/LIC/N/3/MEX/8  2022 17/08/2022  
Montenegro  G/LIC/N/3/MNE/5  2021 26/11/2021  
New Zealand  G/LIC/N/3/NZL/8  2022 17/11/2021  
Nicaragua  G/LIC/N/3/NIC/11  2019 22/03/2022  
Nicaragua  G/LIC/N/3/NIC/12  2020 22/03/2022  
Nicaragua  G/LIC/N/3/NIC/13  2021 22/03/2022  
Panama  G/LIC/N/3/PAN/13  2022 05/04/2022  
Philippines  G/LIC/N/3/PHL/14/Rev.1  2021 20/12/2021  
Russian Federation  G/LIC/N/3/RUS/6  2021 25/10/2021  
Seychelles  G/LIC/N/3/SYC/4  2021 06/12/2021  
Singapore  G/LIC/N/3/SGP/17  2021 22/03/2022  
Thailand  G/LIC/N/3/THA/8  2022 12/04/2022  
Tonga  G/LIC/N/3/T ON/2 2022 21/09/2022  
Türkiye  G/LIC/N/3/T UR/18 2021 22/09/2022  
Türkiye  G/LIC/N/3/T UR/19 2022 22/09/2022  
Ukraine  G/LIC/N/3/UKR/15  2022 21/07/2022  
United Arab Emirates  G/LIC/N/3/ARE/2  2022 06/01/2022  
Uruguay  G/LIC/N/3/URY/15  2021 21/12/2021  
 
_________  
 
 
1 [New notifications were received from [WTO Members] ([Notification document symbol] and 
[Notification Document symbol]) after the agenda for the 7 October meeting had closed. These notifications 
were included in this report among the notifications submitted during the review period and they will be 
reviewed at the Committee's next meeting.]