The UK export licensing body, the Export Control Organisation (ECO), has announced that it intends to introduce a charging regime for export licenses from April 6, 2012. Licenses were previously available to exporters at no cost.
The ECO made the announcement at the bi-annual joint Government and Industry Export Control Advisory Committee meeting on May 11, 2011. It had been intended that a formal public consultation on the proposal would take place in September 2011, with final responses due by November 2011. However, the ECO has yet to commence any such consultation process so it seems likely that this timetable will slip back.
Although the level of fees has yet to be determined, the ECO has indicated that once the charging regime comes into force then the cost of applying for a standard individual export license (SIEL) is likely to be in the region of £100-200 each. The ECO has also confirmed that a fixed fee will be payable for applying for open individual export licenses (OIELs) and an annual fee will be payable by an exporter for registering each open general export license (OGEL) that it uses. Read more here.
