WORLD TRADE G/TBT/Notif.97.753
9December 1997
ORGANIZATION
(97-5387)
Committee onTechnical Barriers toTrade
NOTIFICATION
Thefollowing notification isbeing circulated inaccordance withArticle 10.6.
1. Member toAgreement notifying: NETHERLANDS
Ifapplicable, name oflocalgovernment involved (Articles 3.2and7.2):
2. Agency responsible: Productschap voorgedistilleerde dranken
Agency orauthority designated tohandle comments regarding thenotification shallbe
indicated ifdifferent from above: National Enquiry Point
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X],2.10.1 [],5.6.2 [],5.7.1 [],other:
4. Products covered (HSorCCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICSnumbers maybeprovided inaddition, where applicable):
Products towhich theOrdinance relates:
- Distilled andweakly distilled drinks asdetailed inArticle 1paras. 2and3of
thisOrdinance;
- Distilled drinks covered byHarmonized Nomenclature Code 2208 of(EEC)
Regulation No.2658/87 oftheCouncil oftheEuropean Union andonwhich, on
thebasis oftheDutch legislation onexcise duties, excise dutyischarged on
alcohol;
- Sweetening, Article 1paragraph 4a;
- Ethyl alcohol ofagricultural origin, Article 1paragraph 4b;
- Distillate ofagricultural origin, Article 1paragraph 4c;
- Maltwine, Article 1paragraph 4d;
- Jenever asdetailed inArticle 2paragraph 1ofthisOrdinance andArticle 1
paragraph 4subsection mofthe(EEC) Council Regulation No.1576/89 of
29May1989;
- Young Jenever, Article 2paragraph 2;
- OldJenever, Article 2paragraph 3;
- Grain Jenever, Article 2paragraph 4;
- Korenwijn, Article 3;
- Advocaat, Article 7;
- Vieux, Article 10;
- Brandewijn, Article 11;
- Vruchtenbrandewijn, Article 12;and
- Likorette, Article 13.G/TBT/Notif.97.753
Page2
5. Title, number ofpages andlanguage(s) ofthenotified document: Regulation onthe
definition ofspirit drinks andlowstrength spirit drinks.
6. Description ofcontent: Theregulation concerns general provisions regarding the
definition, description andpresentation ofspirit drinks andlowstrength spirit drinks.
TheOrdinance contains:
(1) Ageneral description ofdistilled drinks which isinconformity with (EEC)
Council Regulation No.1576/89 of29May1989 andtheassociated Annexes;
(2) ageneral description oflowstrength spirit drinks;
(3) definitions ofsweetening, ethyl alcohol, distillate ofagricultural origin andmalt
wine asstated inArticle 1paragraph 4subsections a,b,candd,which arein
conformity with theprovisions contained in(EEC) Council Regulation
No.1576/89 of29May1989, along withanumber ofspecific products which,
intheopinion oftheDutch government, contain regulations within themeaning
oftheAgreement onTechnical Barriers toTrade. Thefollowing technical
regulations were laiddown prior totheentry intoforce oftheDirective on
1January 1989, fortheproducts mentioned in:
(4) Article 2paragraph 2(Young Jenever);
(5) Article 2paragraph 3(OldJenever);
(6) Article 2paragraph 4(Grain Jenever);
(7) Article 7parapargh 1(Advocaat) andArticle 7paragraph 2theuseofeggyolks
andeggwhites inthepreparation ofadvocaat;
(8) Article 8andAnnexes 1and2:themethods ofanalysis used inthe
determination ofthealcohol andeggyolkcontent;
(9) Article 10(Vieux);
(10) Article 11(Brandewijn);
(11) Article 12(Vruchtenbrandewijn);
(12) Article 13(Likorette).
TheOrdinance contains technical prescriptions relating to:
(13) Article 3(Korenwijn);
(14) Articles 4and5regarding thematuration orageing ofjenever andkorenwijn.
These regulations implement theprovisions contained inArticle 1paragraph 3
subsection eandArticle 7paragraph 3subsections aandbof(EEC) Council
Regulation No.1576/89 of29May1989.G/TBT/ Notif.97.753
Page3
6. Description ofcontent: (cont'd)
Article 17contains prohibition provisions forthecommercial useofproducts
which donotcomply withtherequirements andregulations ofthisOrdinance andthe
provisions towhich reference ismade inthisOrdinance. Regarding foreign products
which comply withequivalent requirements, amutual recognition provision hasbeen
included inArticle 16which stipulates thatdistilled drinks shall comply with the
provisions of(EEC) Council Regulation no.1576/89 of29May1989. Furthermore,
Article 17stipulates thatthespecific product provisions contained insections 3and4
areonly applicable toproducts prepared intheNetherlands. Asforproducts as
specified insection 2,Article 6contains aspecific mutual recognition provision.
7. Objective andrationale, including thenature ofurgent problems where applicable: If,in
thecaseoftheproducts named inpoints 1.and2.withtechnical regulations, thedraft
contains technical barriers totrade, thensuch measures arejustified ongrounds of
protection oftheinterests offairtrade practices andtheprotection oftheconsumer.
8. Relevant documents:
- Excise Duties Actof31October 1991, Bulletin ofActs andDecrees 561,
regarding simplification anduniformisation ofthelegislation onexcise duties;
- Industrial Organisation Actof1950, most recently amended bytheActof
24June1992, Bulletin ofActsandDecrees 409; and
- Ordinance establishing theCommodity Board forDistilled Drinks, Government
Gazette of12April 1996, Article 5.
9. Proposed dateofadoption: 11February 1998
Proposed dateofentry intoforce: 12February 1998
10. Final dateforcomments: 11February 1998
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point [X]oraddress, e-mail andtelefax number
ofother body: