Overcoming barriers to trade

Claire Harrison (Export Control Organisation) and Trevor Wood (Interexport Management Systems LTD) began the Export Control series by talking about export licenses for your goods.

You can watch the video of the webinar below, and check out our Recent Webinars page to access all the Open to Export webinars giving practical guidance and answers to all your exporting concerns.

To begin with some goods require licenses when exporting overseas, as they fall under certain control lists. A good way to find out if your exports require a license is to look at the ‘Strategic Export Control Lists’.

Types of Goods

  1. Military goods – these are goods that are designed or modified for military use such as tanks
  2. Dual-use goods – these are goods which have been designed or modified for commercial use but can also be used by the military, hence the term dual use.

Software and technology will also need to be licensed and a good way to check if these need a license is to head over to EcoChecker where it will tell you if a license is needed.

Once you’ve figured out whether or not your goods require a license you will need to know which license to use; there are three main ones which we will run over now for you quickly.

Main types of export licences

  1. Open General – this is a pre-determined license, so you will need to check whether or not your goods fall under this.
  2. Standard Individual – once you’ve applied for this type of license it will last for a period of 2 years.
  3. Open Individual – these will last for a period of 5 years and are more flexible than the standard individual license.

All license applications are done through SPIRE, which if you are unfamiliar with, there is another webinar on how to go through the process of applying.

Export Action Plan