Lifting of import quotas

A number of importation quotas will be lifted as of January 1, 2005, the Trade Services Directorate of the Commerce Division said yesterday.

On May 1, 2004, some temporary importation quotas were introduced on certain products originating from non-EU countries. The majority will now be removed while quotas on products imported from countries which are not members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will remain in force.

The quotas on footwear, ceramics and porcelain imported from China will be removed as of Saturday. However, until national legislation is amended, importers should still apply for an import licence, which will be issued automatically and without any restrictions.

Surveillance measures on footwear imported from Vietnam will also be removed.

The quotas on textile products will be removed for those countries that are WTO members. This means that the quotas for textile products imported from Belarus, North Korea, Serbia and Montenegro and Vietnam will remain in force.

Quotas for all other countries (Argentina, China, Indonesia, Peru, Pakistan, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan) will be completely removed. This removal of quotas will apply for those products which are shipped after Saturday.

Importers of products shipped after Saturday should still apply for an import licence and they should present the bill of lading as proof that the goods were in fact shipped after that date. In such cases, the import licence will be granted automatically without any restrictions. This procedure will be adopted until the national legislation is amended.

In case of textile products imported from China, although the quotas will be removed, such products will still be subject to an import licence during next year. The import licence will be granted automatically without any restrictions.

Surveillance measures for products imported from certain countries (the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bangladesh, Croatia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Russia and Ukraine) and which are presently in force, will be removed as of Saturday. However, surveillance measures for products imported from Uzbekistan and Vietnam will remain in force during next year. Import licences for such products will be automatically granted. This is subject, where applicable, to the presentation of a valid export licence from the supplier country.

The quotas on steel products imported from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan will not be removed for the time being as these countries are not members of the WTO and no bilateral agreement has yet been reached with the European Union. Therefore the current procedures for such products will remain in force even after January 1.

Surveillance measures on products imported from all other countries will also remain in force during next year.

Further information may be obtained from the Commerce Division, Import-Export Licensing Unit, Trade Services Directorate, Lascaris, Valletta (Tel: 2124 3071, 2124 2270).