I
(Acts whose publication is obligatory)
COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2263/2000
of 13 October 2000
amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclatureand on the Common Customs Tariff
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987(1), and in particular Articles 9 and 12 thereof,
Whereas:(1) Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 established a goods nomenclature, hereinafter called the"Combined Nomenclature", to meet, at one and the same time, the requirements of the Common Customs Tariff, the external trade statistics of the Community and other Community policies concerning the importation or exportation of goods.
(2) The combined Nomenclature is reproduced in Annex I to Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 together with the autonomous and the conventional duty rates and the statistical supplementary units.
(3) It is appropriate to modernise and to simplify Annex I as envisaged by the SLIM initiative (Simpler legislation for the internal market).
(4) It is necessary to amend the Combined Nomenclature to take account of:
1. changes in requirements relating to statistics and to commercial policy;
2. technological or commercial developments;
3. the need for alignment or clarification of texts.
(5) Following the adoption of Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2000(2) amending Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and the Common Customs Tariff, and in particular Article 1 thereof, the presentation of Annex I has been rationalised and simplified by having one column reflecting the conventional duty rates with an indication in a footnote of the autonomous duty rate whenever such a rate is lower than the conventional duty rate.
(6) Annex I includes adjustments of duty rates resulting from measures adopted by the Council, including Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986 to 1994), Council Regulation (EC) No 3093/95 of 22 December 1995 laying down the rates of duty to be applied by the Community resulting from negotiations under GATT Article XXIV:6 (consequent upon the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden to the European Union) as well as measures adopted by the Council or the Commission(3).
(7) In accordance with Article 12, the Commission shall adopt a regulation reproducing the complete version of the Combined Nomenclature, together with the autonomous and conventional duty rates, as resulting from measures adopted by the Council or the Commission. The said Regulation shall be published not later than 31 October in theOfficial Journal of the European Communities and it shall apply from 1 January of the following year.
(8) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Annex I to Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 is hereby replaced by the Annex to this Regulation.
Article 2
This Regulation enters into force on 1 January 2001.
This Regulation is binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 13 October 2000.