Identification of National Import License Issuance Procedures and Comparison with WTO Agreements

Identification of National imports Licensing procedures and examination of their conformity with WTO relevant agreements are absolute requirements of Iran''s accession to this international organization. In this study، 39 national import licensing procedures have been identified in 15 public institutions. After collecting information through questionnaires، import licensing and licensing procedure diagrams have been analyzed and the findings of this analysis are compared with WTO relevant agreements. Since the identified licensing procedures are sanitary، technical، safety/cultural ones; the relevant and suitable agreements in WTO comprise import license issuance procedures agreement، sanitary and phytosanitary measures agreement، technical barriers to trade agreement، and general exceptions in GATT. According to the results of the study، in the most cases the importer refers only to one administrative pillar. But there are some exceptional cases that due to multi dimensional attributes and specifications of products، the confirmation of the qualification of products by an institution is not sufficient. In addition، in some cases، in order to confirm the sanitary and technical goods، the international standards and sometimes national standards have been considered.