Notice

NTI 2954: open general import licence 2022 and guidance on its use (HTML)

Published 21 October 2022

The notice to importers 2954 was issued on 21 October 2022 by Import Controls Policy and Licencing team, Department for International Trade.

What is the OGIL

1. The UK’s Open General Import Licence (OGIL) is a national trade control measure that allows the import of all goods into the UK. It also sets out various prohibitions and controls to this general permission to import. The version of the OGIL attached to this notice and its schedules come into force on 21 October 2022.

History

2. The UK’s import restrictions’ legislation dates back to the start of World War II (the Import, Export and Customs Powers (Defence) Act 1939). This legislation permits imports to be prohibited or regulated by order and, during the war, the import of all goods that were not specifically useful to the war effort was banned, subject to specified exceptions (such as Churchill’s cigars). In 1954, the Import of Goods (Control) Order 1954 was made. This maintains the general prohibition on imports, but allows licences to be granted which permit imports. Under the 1954 Order, various OGILs have been made. The effect of these has been to turn the general prohibition on its head - an OGIL allows the import of all goods into the UK unless the terms of the OGIL provide otherwise, for example by listing those goods whose import is prohibited or requires a specific licence.

3. The UK’s membership of the EU, particularly since the introduction of the EU Single Market in 1992, placed limitations upon the UK’s ability to introduce purely national import control measures. Wording in the OGIL itself confirmed that its terms were subject to EU restrictions. After the end of the transition period, these restrictions no longer apply to Great Britain, but may apply in Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The OGIL is a useful tool

4. The advantage of the OGIL model is that national measures can be immediately implemented – by writing into the OGIL an exception to the general permission to import. In the absence of this mechanism, the government would presumably need to introduce legislation into Parliament which, by comparison would be a time-consuming process and one which would be far from ideal in an emergency situation.

How to find out about current import trade bans or licensing controls

5. All UK import controls relating to goods can be found on the import controls page. Guidance notices are also published for importers, particularly if there is an import licensing control regime or transitional import licensing control regime. The FCDO has also published statutory guidance that relates to import controls introduced by regulations under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA). Please note that the Department for International Trade may not have policy responsibility for all import controls and questions should be directed to the organisation listed in the relevant notice.

What’s changed

6. The OGIL has been updated to reflect the following changes to commodity codes that fall within the firearms import licensing control, specifically:

Commodity codes 9705000030, 9705000090 and 9706000090 are no longer valid and have been replaced respectively by 9705100030, 9705100090 and 9706900000.

Enquiries

Email: enquiries.ilb@trade.gov.uk

This notice is for information purposes only and has no force in law. Please note that where legal advice is required, importers should make their own arrangements.

View the open general import licence 2022.