In accordance with Anukret (Sub-Decree) No. 17 ANK.BK on the Enforcement of the List of Prohibited and Restricted Goods dated 26 February 2020 by the Royal Government of Cambodia and its Annexes that require a permission to import issued by the Ministry of Environment.

The permission to import is issued by the Ministry of Environment required of ODS and HFC substances listed below:

The system will apply to any countries that are parties to the Conventions/Protocols/Agreements that Cambodia is also the party. For non-party, Cambodia cannot export to or import from, like Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and HFCs and products containing or designing to use of Ozone Depleting Substances. Cambodia can only import from or export to the parties which are the parties to Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Under the Montreal Protocol Ozone Depleting Substances there are obligations in which parties apply for the reduction and phase out of ODS and HFCs in some target years; therefore, the import of ODS and HFCs have to apply the yearly quota and license per shipment, to make sure that the import of such ODS are not over the quota of a target year. Cambodia is one of the parties to the Montreal Protocol; therefore, Cambodia has to apply the rules and obligations of the Montreal Protocol.

In accordance with Sub-Decree No.047 on Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) Management, dated 17 March 2005 and Sub-Decree No. 192 on the revision of article 4, 5, 14, 19, 20, 23 and Annex 1 and Annex 2 of Sub-Decree No. 47, dated 30 September 2021 which under the Department of Air Quality and Noise Management, the General Directorate of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Environment is responsible for issuing the license and impose the license fees to control and verify the relevant activities involving ODS and HFC management in Cambodia.

Under Sub-Decree on ODS Management, importers and exporters of ODS and ODS-dependent products are required to first register with the MOE and apply for a quota. For each shipment, a registered importer needs to apply for an import permit from the MOE. The importer needs to show the import permit to the Customs along with other supporting documents before the shipment can be cleared. Therefore, the MOE can maintain its records of imports and later check with the General Department of Customs and Excise to verify and reconcile the import data. This exercise is carried out prior to the reporting of data to the Ozone Secretariat and the Multilateral Fund Secretariat.

For ODS, the MOE has set quotas for individual importers and gives an import permit to any registered importer depending on the quotas they have. The import permit will be given by the MOE once it determines that the accumulated requested quantity would not exceed the annual quotas the importer received. For ODS, after the importer has cleared the shipment, the importer must inform the MOE for them to inspect and apply the license sticker to the imported cylinders.

The quota is yearly based.

The license is allotted only for ODS import only as control under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Each time when applying for an import licence, the company has to submit the customs declaration. No, unused allocations are not added to quotas for a succeeding period. Yes, the names of importers to whom licences have been allocated are made known to governments and export promotion bodies of exporting countries upon request.

The company has to apply for a quota before 1 November each year for the next year importing.

One month for processing of application, means that the quota will be available for collecting by the import company on 1 December.

The quota is annually.

The license is accepted by all concerned institutions.

The implementation of an ODS import quota system has been in operation since 2005. Any companies wishing to import ODS in the next year have to apply for a permit consistent with the national quota before 1 of November of the current year. The allocation of an annual quota is based on historical import statistics of the importers in the previous year. Moreover, the Ministry of Environment (MoE) allocates a certain amount of ODS (about 10% of total quota) as a "buffer" for any new importers. Prior to the issuance of import permits to importers, MOE will verify that the requested quantity would not cause the annual consumption to exceed the reduction target as agreed with the Montreal Protocol ExCom.

After getting the annual quota, the company needs to get the import license per shipment from MoE if they wish to import ODS and HFCs.

There is a system like informal Prio-inform consent (iPIC), if one company would like to import ODS to Cambodia, the focal point of the exporting country will send an email notification to the focal point in Cambodia to verify that the company still has the available quota to import such amount into Cambodia or not. If the response is yes, the exporting country will process to export, if not the exporting country will reject to export such amount to Cambodia.

This one applies for transit; however, this is very rare to have transit ODS.

Cambodia never has this experience, as never rejection of a single application.

All persons, firms and institutions are eligible to apply for licenses under restrictive licensing systems. A legal or natural person wishing to import or export or transit ozone depleting substances as stipulated in annexes of the Montreal Protocol or in the table mentioned above shall register with the Ministry of Environment to get the annual quota and license. The registration is free.

Article 4 of Sub-Decree on ODS Management: Legal or natural person wishing to import of control substances/refrigerants as stipulated in Annex 1 of this Sub-Decree on ODS Management shall register and get a quota from the Ministry of Environment.

Yes, the company detail, and the purpose of using ODS in Cambodia. For products subject to quantitative restriction the importer will need to attach the bill of lading, packing list, invoice, customs declaration in the previous shipment.

Customs declaration for applying the new license.

Yes, will depend on the amount of ODS imported.

There is no deposit or advance payment requirement associated with the issue of licenses on this current practice.

One year for quota.

No, there is no penalty for the non-utilization of a licence or portion of a license.

The licenses are not transferable between importers, but we can reduce the quota allocation for the company who does not operate or use the quota in the first six months.

There are no other additional administrative procedures, apart from import licensing and similar administrative procedures, required prior to importation.

Yes, foreign exchange is automatically provided by the banking authorities for goods to be imported. Foreign exchange is always available to cover licenses issued.