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(r) Complaint: Consideration of some applications has been deferred for an unreasonable lapse of time without notice to the applicant. Answer: This allegation lias some foundation, and the Import Advisory Committee has arranged with the Departments that if decisions cannot be made promptly the applicant should be advised of the fact and the probable length of deferment, when the applicant may, if he thinks fit, reapply. E. ADDITIONAL REMEDIES TO IMPROVE THE SYSTEM 14. In addition to remedies mentioned under the headings of the various complaints listed in the preceding section, the Government adopted a number of recommendations made by the Import Advisory Committee in a report to the Government last July designed to improve the system. Some of these related to — (a) Principles for Basing Decisions.—The Committee has had frequent consultations with the Departments of Customs and Industries and Commerce and has enunciated a number of principles which are designed to ensure equitable and uniform bases for decisions on applications and appeals considered by officers in those Departments. (b) Major Applications.—Applications involving major industrial development proposals, large amounts of overseas funds, or otherwise likely to involve high policy consideration are being submitted by the Department concerned to the Committee for discussion prior to determination. (c) Rehabilitation. —Applications for import licences on rehabilitation grounds are now being dealt with only after a recommendation has been made by the Director of Rehabilitation, and if there is any difference of viewpoint between the Departments concerned on any particular case the application is being referred to the Import Advisory Committee. (d) Allocations for " D " Items and " Above Basic " Allocations.—When it is proposed to issue licences (other than " token " licences) in respect of items notified as " D " in the Schedule, or when an additional general allocation is proposed for items on which a basic allocation was notified in the Schedule, adequate notice and equal opportunity —preferably by fixing a date before which decisions on applications will not be made —is now being given to all importers. This is to avoid a previous practice whereby certain importers gained unfair advantages over others when limited total licences were to be issued at short notice and later applicants with equal claims received no allocations, (e) Demarcation of Functions Between Customs Department and Department of Industries and Commerce. —Directives have been issued which make it clear which Department considers each item in the Licensing Schedule, and in all cases where the Departments disagree on the decision which should be made on a particular application the papers are referred to the Import Advisory Committee. The Departments also refer to the Committee applications and appeals of particular difficulty or significance. F. CHANGES MADE IN 1951 LICENSING SCHEDULE 15. The Government announced substantial changes to the previous policy when the 1951 Licensing Schedule was published. The principal new features were —- (a) Decontrol from licensing of 326 items from all " non-scheduled " countries — i.e., from countries in the sterling area and most of the other soft-currency countries. In both number of items and over-all value this change affected about one-third of the licensed imports. This step alone relieved the trading community and Government Departments of a tremendous amount of work and enabled orders to be placed as desired without delays or permits of any kind.

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