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Measures on the Administration of Goods Import License

货物进口许可证管理办法

Measures on the Administration of Goods Import License

Issued:            December 10, 2004

Effective: January 1, 2005

Issuing Authority: Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM")

Main Content: The measures lift erstwhile quotas on automobiles, related products and caoutchouc (natural rubber), deleting the phrase "quota limit" from the 2001 Measures on the Administration of Goods Import License to maintain consistency with Section 11 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and in response to China's World Trade Organization commitments.  The management system has also been reorganized, with MOFCOM replacing the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation as the administrative body, which will work in collaboration with the Customs General Administration to enact, adjust and publish the annual Catalogue of Goods Subject to Import License Administration and the License-Issuing Catalogue in Classifications of Import License Administration (Catalogues).

Under the measures, all license-issuing organs shall issue import licenses in accordance with the Catalogues and specific provisions in the measures (relating to supervised chemical products, chemical products that can easily produce poison and substances damaging to the ozone layer), granting more discretion to the issuing authority.

The scope of applicants has also been expanded to include all international trade dealers and individuals (as opposed to only import and export enterprises), and they now have the choice of submitting as approval documents either their import and export enterprise qualifications or their recorded registration form of international trade dealers in addition to their business license.   

The valid term of an import license is one year, and such license will automatically become ineffective at the end of this term.  If an extension is desired for any reason, an application must be submitted to the original license-issuing organs.  Import licenses may only be extended once and for no longer than three months.  Any dealer who misplaces a license shall report the loss in writing to the original license-issuing organs and Customs of the port of importation as soon as it occurs.