Article 13U.K.
1.The import licence referred to in Article 8 shall be issued not later than one working day following that on which the application is lodged. Subject to the third subparagraph of Article 11 (1), it shall be valid until the final date of validity of the document of origin submitted in accordance with Article 8 but not later than 31 December of the year of issue of the document of origin.
However, in duly justified exceptional cases Member States may extend the validity of an import licence for a period up to 25 January of the following year. Member States shall inform the Commission before 31 March each year of the import quantities and the circumstances involved for each supplier country.
However, as soon as the Commission has requested from a supplier country, pursuant to Article 12 (1) (d), more frequent data as to the issue of documents of origin, the Commission can request that the import licence be issued only after the competent authority is satisfied that all information on the document of origin corresponds to the information received from the Commission through more frequent communication on the matter. The licence shall be issued immediately thereafter.
2.Import licences shall be issued only within the quantities laid down in the relevant tariff quotas and only in response to an application accompanied by a valid document of origin issued for the same calendar year.
3.On issue, each import licence shall bear in Box 20 the remark ‘issued in accordance with Title II.A of Regulation (EC) No 1439/95’.
4.No security shall be required for the issue of the import licence referred to in paragraph 1.
5.The import licence must be returned to the issuing agency as soon as possible after use and not later than five days after its expiry.