. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/N/BEL/27
14 November 2001
(01-5797)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  French
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   BELGIUM
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):
2. Agency responsible:
Ministry of Finance
Rue de la Loi
B – 1000 Brussels
Tel: +32 2 233 80 64
Fax:  + 32 2 233 80 16
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Containers for beverages
which will, in some cases, be subject to a packaging levy
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Preliminary Draft
Law concerning Various Fiscal Provisions relating to Eco-Taxes and Eco-Rebates
6. Description of content:  This draft law is intended to amend, inter alia , the Ordinary Law
of 16 July 1993 Aimed at Completing the Federal Structure of the State, which was notified
under reference No. 97/891/B following a notification procedure relating to the Law of
7 March 1996 amending both the Law of 16 July 1993 and the Ministerial Order of2 May 1996 concerning the fiscal regime for products subject to eco-taxation.
The new draft law is designed to modify the concept of eco-taxes envisaged in the
Ordinary Law of 16 July 1993 by replacing it with the concept of an eco-rebate, which
provides for the partial across-the-board reduction of excise duties or the introduction of an
excise duty on certain products related to beverages, a reduction in VAT from 21 to 6 percent for non-alcoholic beverages as stipulated in Annex H of the sixth VAT Directive, and
the introduction of a packaging levy on products contained in packages considered to be
less environment-friendly.
The products concerned are beer, still wine, sparkling wine, alcohol and spirituous
beverages, intermediate products, mineral water, lemonade and other soft drinks, fruit andvegetable juices, but excluding milk.
At this stage and bearing in mind the procedure under way initiated by theG/TBT/N/BEL/27
Page 2
6. Description of content (cont'd)
European Commission under reference MARKT/D/2 – 2920-HI/kdb-D(2001) 286 of
2 May 2001 in the form of a letter addressed to our country seeking explanations regarding
the registration procedure and marking methods stipulated by the Law on eco-taxes and its
implementation procedures, the technical standards contained in the Ordinary Law of
16 July 1993 are continuing in force on a temporary basis.
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
The draft law aims to introduce into the current law the concept of eco-rebates
based, on the positive side, on a reduction of taxation on products presented in more
environment-friendly containers, but matched on the negative side by a packaging levy on
the same products presented in less environment-friendly containers.  This concept is aimed
at making the end-consumer aware of the need to use beverages that produce the least
possible amount of packaging waste.
8. Relevant documents:
9. Proposed date of adoption:
Proposed date of entry into force: }60 days
10. Final date for comments:           
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body: