Brussels, 12/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 12 June, the European Commission announced the elimination of “the vast majority of licence obligations for imports and exports in the agricultural sector”. Also, the rules for products that will remain subject to a licensing obligation have been harmonised and simplified.
The Commission explains that the use of licences allows for a detailed monitoring of trade in often sensitive product areas and facilitates the anticipation of trade developments. It also makes it possible to manage common agricultural policy (CAP) measures such as tariff quotas and export refunds. Import licences will also continue to apply to some products that are imported under preferential trade terms.
Overall, the number of products for which a licence is required has been considerably reduced. Where at present around 500 products are subject to a licensing obligation for imports, that number will be only 65 as of 1 July (1 August for wine). With regard to exports, only 43 products will have to be accompanied by a licence. These numbers are quite limited compared to the number of tariff lines covered by the single common market organisation (CMO), which is around 1,650. These changes represent a reduction well in excess of the 25% Commission target for the reduction of the administrative burden.
In the cereal sector, the number of products for which an import licence obligation applies is reduced from 133 to 21. Export certificates for cereals will continue to apply for 9 products, rather than the original 133.
For wine, with application of reform in this sector, the number of products covered by an import licence obligation will decrease from 100 to zero as of 1 August, thus allowing traders to import any product covered by the new wine CMO regulation without a licence. The licensing obligation will also be totally abolished for imports at full duty in the beef and veal sector and in the dairy sector.
For those products that will continue to be accompanied by a licence (except in the case of export refunds and tariff rate quotas), the detailed rules will be laid down in one single regulation that governs all aspects of licences, clearly identifies all the products for which a licence is required, and lays down the rules with regard to the period of validity of the licence as well as the level of security.
This leads to a reduction in administrative costs for operators and customs authorities. For national administrations, the savings are obvious - a lighter workload. (L.C./transl.jl)