| TOP |
| 6th Report of Market Access Ombudsman Council (March 16, 2000) |
1. Complainant: Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry
2. Ministry concerned: Ministry of Finance
3. Complaint:
Since limits are imposed to quotas for preferential tariffs each fiscal year, goods for which quotas are fully used up toward the end of the fiscal year often fail to qualify for preferential tariffs. Specifically, particle board is a building material used for interiors and for finishing. In the construction industry, periods for completing construction often coincide with the end of the fiscal year and demand for this material increases when the end of construction is near, but on the other hand fiscal year quotas for preferential tariffs are fully used because it is the end of the fiscal year and the goods do not qualify for the preferential tariff.
In the case of construction materials like this, the method of administering the quota should be changed so that there is numerical quota for preferential tariffs remaining unused at the end of the fiscal year.
4. Corresponding Policy of the Ministries concerned:
Since the complainant states that the method of administering quotas for preferential tariffs for building materials (probably referring in this case to quota ceiling value) should be changed to allow quotas to remain until the end of the fiscal year, these are probably products controlled on a day-to-day or month-to-month basis which would no longer qualify for preferential tariff rates during the fiscal year. In the case of these products, there is the advantage that if import value during the fiscal year does not exceed the ceiling at the end of the fiscal year, preferential tariffs can be applied, or that import declarations applying preferential tariffs can be made for specified periods, even if the ceiling amount is exceeded.
One method such as the complainant describes of ensuring that quotas remain (ceiling amounts are not exceeded) at the end of the fiscal year is the prior quota assignment method; under this method, parties having been assigned a quota are able to import in a planned manner, within the ceiling amount, and quality for preferential tariffs. But with this method, since it is impossible for the total value to which preferential tariffs have been applied to exceed the ceiling during the fiscal year, the value to which preferential tariffs apply throughout the fiscal year is ultimately lower, compared to the method of controlling products on a day-to-day or month-to-month basis.
Further, under the prior quota assignment, application of preferential tariffs is restricted to the same types of products as those produced by domestic industries engaged in activities to promote structural reform, when there is the risk that those products will have a detrimental effect on activities concerning structural reform of the said industries.
For these reasons, importers would benefit from using the method of products controlled on a day-to-day or month-to-month basis.
Although this has not been mentioned in this complaint, coordination with the ministries in charge of materials would be necessary, in the event that the ceiling amounts were expanded or eliminated.
5. Remarks
The complainant accepted this policy.