Goods Import Licensing System To Study

Foreign trade is the engine for economic growth. And international trade of goods is a traditional and important part of it As a measure of import management, import licensing system of goods(ILS for short) is studied by all countries. Although GATT/WTO is against restriction on imports by means of quota or license, ILS will prevail for good. Sticked to ILS as China was, China promised in its WTO protocol to remove all quota and license measures that violate WTO by the year 2005. Specific promises are also made in the aspect of import licensing procedure. Should these promises be implemented, can these promises be implemented and how to implemented are purposes of this article.Section One introduces the definition and features of ILS. The author defines ILS as an administrative management system through which the authorities, upon applicants' application examine and approve goods according to legal standards. Import licensing can be classified in automatic and non-automatic import licensing, import licensing with quota and without quota, economic and social import licensing. Import licensing has three features: A. import licensing is a kind of administrative licensing; B. import licensing (esp. non-automatic import licensing) functions as restricting import; C. import licensing is a system of substantive and procedural rules.Section Two discusses the substantive standards and procedural rules of ILS in the context of WTO. Based on comparative advantage theory, WTO promotes trade liberalization, and opposes quantitative restriction. As the prominent means for import quantitative restriction, import licensing is banned by WTO in principle. However, WTO allows certain economic and non-economic reasons for import licensing. Economic reasons are as follows:protecting specific industry, balance of payment and protecting agricultural produces. Non-economic reasons include: environmental protection, health, quality, security and international commitments. Procedures for import licensing are mainly stipulated in Import licensing Procedure Agreement (DLP). The author introduces the contents of the agreement in four aspects, namely, transparency,non-discrimination, efficiency and supervision. Analysis are also made on cases related to ILP.Section Three studies the history and status quo of China import licensing system. China's ILS was established, removed, and re-established and gradually regulated. After accession to WTO, China firmly reforms on ILS in compliance with WTO. A transparently fair and efficient ILS has been preliminarily established by implementing laws such as new Foreign Trade Law, Management Regulation on Import and Export of Goods and Administrative Licensing Law. China has also reduced the scope of goods under import licensing. This year is the last year for keeping import licensing that is against WTO rules. The impact of WTO accession will be obvious than ever before. In this situation, the author is concerned about the direction and pace of the reform on ILS. In the next two chapter this article is to argue two points: A. the scope of goods under economic scope should be reduced; B. the procedure of import licensing should be further improved.Section Four first brings forward three purposes of China's ILS, namely, balance of payments, protection on specific industry, better allocation of imported resources. By analyzing the effects of these three, the author draws a conclusion that ILS is not optimal for realizing these purposes. Import licensing, as a micro means cannot contribute much on macro issues like balance of payment Cost of protection on specific industry is high, for it impedes the development of technology, scales economy, and impair the benefits of other relevant industries. Even when protection of industry is indispensable, import licensing is a good choice. Due to the existence of rent seeking, ILS fails to better allocation of imported resources.Section Five argues the importance of improving import-licensing procedure. In general, improving import licensing is beneficial for:...