19.
cases
the
(in some/certificates in lieu of licences are issued by the
exporting government but the same principle applies). The Board
of Trade's statutory powers provide that/import may be prevented
of any goods unless accompanied by an import licence or an
acceptable certificate from the exporting government. To
enforce these quotas it is therefore only necessary to ensure
that the total quantity or value of licences issued does not
exceed the quota limit. Licences have to be issued to all
importers and this involves various difficulties of allocating
the licences, administration of the system by the Board of
Trade and Customs, distortion to the normal flow of trade,
burdens on traders and the possibility of abuse.
14. One flexible feature of our licensing system is that it
is possible to operate a control which permits the imposition
of a quota restriction with the minimum of delay. This is by
means of issuing Open Individual Licences which enable goods to
be imported without quantitative restrictions by the holders of
the licence. Open Individual Licences are legally similar to
specific licences with a limited value; the withdrawal of the
0.I.L's means that goods cannot be imported except under a new
licence which may, for example, be issued only against a quota.
Licences are frequently issued against an undertaking to make
periodic returns of the goods imported under them and this
facilitates keeping a check on the flow of imports without
having to make special provision for extracting figures from
customs returns.
15. The first question to be decided would be how duty quotas
as distinct from import quotas should be administered. It
would clearly be out of the question to attempt to enforce and
monitor duty quotas on all the imports from beneficiary countries
that would benefit from the preference; in 1967 our imports of
manufactures from non-Commonwealth developing countries (sections
15-8
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