Export licenses are required for over one-half the commodities
identified in the French tariff nomenclature. Governmental authority of
this control is contained in various decrees, the latest dated November
30, 1944. These decrees also permit addition to or removal from the
list of controlled commodities merely by publication of a notice in
the _Journal Officiel_. The most recent list of these commodities,
published as a codification of all previous lists, appeared in _Journal
Officiel_ No. 156 of July 5, 1953.
Applications for license to export, as submitted by French exporters,
are examined by the Ministry of Industry and Energy, by the Office des
Changes (where monetary and financial factors are given consideration),
and on occasion by appropriate technical committees and personnel in
other agencies. At the time the application for export license is
submitted, the exporter may be instructed by the Ministry of Industry
and Energy to submit a sample, photograph, blueprint, drawing, or
other detailed description of the commodity in question. These data
are used in determining the advisability of issuing the export
license requested. At the port of exit, random samples of actual
exports are extracted by customs officials and these are compared
by competent technicians with the original data submitted with the
license application. This procedure is designed to assure in as many
instances as practical that the commodity exported is identical with
the commodity for which the export license is issued.
In the event fraudulent action on the part of the exporter is found and
can be legally established, the exporter is subject to confiscation of
the goods in question and fines ranging upward to four times the value
of the shipment plus penal servitude. The control system in operation
in France makes it possible to block or encourage exports to any
destination of commodities requiring export licenses.