International Trade Organization

The fifth general session of contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade held in Torquay, England ended on December 19,1950. Prior ot adjournment, a Canadian proposal to create a standing committee to handle the problems arising between sessions was referred to the participating governments for their consideration. The session approved the circulation among the parties of a questionnaire designed to obtain by early 1951 information on the policy, technique, and effect of import restrictions being applied for balance-of-payments reasons, and information on discriminatory measures applied under exceptions made for the postwar transitional period. It was also agreed that due to the uncertain international situation, there should be an extension of the period for the use of exceptional import controls on scarce commodities and those of which there were large government-owned stocks. The conference in addition studied several complaints alleging that the benefits of some tariff concessions had been nullified by the actions of certain governments and accepted a code of standard practices on the administration of necessary trade restrictions.1 The code provided that: 1) the grant of an import license should imply that the necessary foreign exchange would be obtainable if applied for within a reasonable time; 2) if both import licenses and exchange permits were required the operation of the two requirements should be coordinated; 3) new restrictions on imports or exports should not apply to goods proved to have been en route at the time of the change or to have been already largely paid for; 4) goods proven to have been confirmed prior to the change in restrictions and not marketable anywhere else should receive special consideration; 5) the administrative formalities in connection with the issuing of import and export licenses or exchange permits should be designed to allow action on applications within a reasonably short period; 6) requests for renewal under exceptional circumstances should be given sympathetic consideration; 7) under a system of fixed quotas the period set for applications should be sufficient to allow for exchanges of communications for the purchase of the goods; 8) the control authorities, when apportioning quotas to importers on the basis of past participation in the trade, should give consideration to requests for licenses from new firms; 9) if an assurance on an import license would be necessary for consular legalization, a communication giving the number of the license should be sufficient; 10) authority given to customs officials should be sufficient to allow slight discrepancies from specifications of import or export authorization; and 11) when a balance-of-payments difficulty has occurred, transfers of exchange should give priority to goods already imported or licensed in preference to new orders.