. /.  
 WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/NLD/66 
27 October 2004 
 (04-4559) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   THE NETHERLANDS
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   Productschap Dranken 
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:   National Enquiry 
Point – EC WTO TBT Enquiry Point 
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):   Small plastic bottles for 
soft drinks and waters (up to max. 0.75 litre) 
5. Title, number of pages and langua ge(s) of the notified document:   2nd amendment to the 
Decree implementing the Beverages Ma rketing Board Packaging Order 2003 
6. Description of content:   This regulation is intended to  introduce a temporary disposal 
charge for small plastic bottles made from PET us ed for the sale of soft drinks and waters, 
in order to use this to test the possibility of  a specific collection system for these bottles in 
the Netherlands. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
From 1 January 2005, a collection system for sm all bottles will be tested in the Netherlands, 
based on collection in special bins.  These bins will be placed at schools, sports clubs and big public events and in other places where citizens want to dispose of their empty bottles. 
We will test whether, and to what extent, citizens are willing to collect bottles in this way, 
so that they can be recycled: currently, th ese bottles end up in household waste.  If this 
system works well, deposits and further-reach ing measures to collect the empty bottles will 
not be necessary.  
To finance this test, a levy of 2 eurocen t per bottle will be imposed on all bottles under 
consideration. In addition, all producers and importers will be requested to inform the 
institution organizing the test on behalf of the marketing board periodically (probably 
monthly) of the number of bottles sold, in order to be able to calculate the charge.  An auditor's statement will also be requested once a year.  Any credit balance at the end of the 
test will be paid back to the producers and im porters in question, pro rata based on sales. 
No other obligations will be imposed on the producers and importers concerned, i.e. no 
labelling requirements. G/TBT/N/NLD/66 
Page 2  
 
8. Relevant documents:    
- Industrial Organisation Act (already in your possession); 
- Decree establishing the Beverages Marketing Board (already in your possession); - Beverages Marketing Board Packaging Order 2003 (enclosed). 
9. Proposed date of adoption:  17 November 2004  
Proposed date of entry into force:  1 January 2005 
10. Final date for comments:   a.s.a.p. 
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: