Decision No 2/2001 of the EU-Slovakia Association Council

of 22 February 2001

amending Protocol 4 to the Europe Agreement with Slovakia concerning the definition of the concept of "originating products" and methods of administrative cooperation

(2001/237/EC)

THE ASSOCIATION COUNCIL,

Having regard to the Europe Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Slovak Republic, of the other part(1), signed in Luxembourg on 4 October 1993, and in particular Article 38 of Protocol 4 thereto,

Whereas:

(1) Some technical amendments are in order to correct anomalies between the different language versions of the text.

(2) The list of insufficient working and processing needs to be amended to ensure proper interpretation and to take account of the need to include some operations not covered previously by this list.

(3) The provisions for the temporary use of flat rates in cases where drawback is prohibited or exemptions from customs duties are granted need to be prolonged until 31 December 2001.

(4) The need has arisen to provide for a system of accounting segregation of originating and non-originating materials, subject to authorisation by customs authorities.

(5) The provisions concerning the amounts expressed in euro need to be revised in order to clarify the procedure and to provide greater stability for the level of the amounts in national currencies.

(6) To take account of the lack of production of a certain material within the countries concerned, a correction should be made to the list of working and processing requirements which non-originating materials have to fulfil to qualify for originating status,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Protocol 4 concerning the definition of originating products and methods of administrative cooperation is hereby amended as follows:

1. Article 1(i) shall be replaced by the following:

"(i) 'added value' shall be taken to be the ex-works price minus the customs value of each of the materials incorporated which originate in the other countries referred to in Articles 3 and 4 or, where the customs value is not known or cannot be ascertained, the first verifiable price paid for the materials in the Community or the Slovak Republic;"

2. Article 7 shall be replaced by the following:

"Article 7

Insufficient working or processing

1. Without prejudice to paragraph 2, the following operations shall be considered as insufficient working or processing to confer the status of originating products, whether or not the requirements of Article 6 are satisfied:

(a) preserving operations to ensure that the products remain in good condition during transport and storage;

(b) breaking-up and assembly of packages;

(c) washing, cleaning; removal of dust, oxide, oil, paint or other coverings;

(d) ironing or pressing of textiles;

(e) simple painting and polishing operations;

(f) husking, partial or total bleaching, polishing, and glazing of cereals and rice;

(g) operations to colour sugar or form sugar lumps;

(h) peeling, stoning and shelling, of fruits, nuts and vegetables;

(i) sharpening, simple grinding or simple cutting;

(j) sifting, screening, sorting, classifying, grading, matching; (including the making-up of sets of articles);

(k) simple placing in bottles, cans, flasks, bags, cases, boxes, fixing on cards or boards and all other simple packaging operations;

(l) affixing or printing marks, labels, logos and other like distinguishing signs on products or their packaging;

(m) simple mixing of products, whether or not of different kinds;

(n) simple assembly of parts of articles to constitute a complete article or disassembly of products into parts;

(o) a combination of two or more operations specified in subparagraphs (a) to (n);

(p) slaughter of animals.

2. All operations carried out either in the Community or in the Slovak Republic on a given product shall be considered together when determining whether the working or processing undergone by that product is to be regarded as insufficient within the meaning of paragraph 1.";

3. the last sentence of Article 15(6), shall be replaced by the following:"The provisions of this paragraph shall apply until 31 December 2001.";

4. the following Article shall be inserted:

"Article 20a

Accounting segregation

1. Where considerable cost or material difficulties arise in keeping separate stocks of originating and non-originating materials which are identical and interchangeable, the customs authorities may, at the written request of those concerned, authorise the so-called 'accounting segregation' method to be used for managing such stocks.

2. This method must be able to ensure that, for a specific reference period, the number of products obtained which could be considered as 'originating' is the same as that which would have been obtained if there had been physical segregation of the stocks.

3. The customs authorities may grant such authorisation, subject to any conditions deemed appropriate.

4. This method is recorded and applied on the basis of the general accounting principles applicable in the country where the product was manufactured.

5. The beneficiary of this facilitation may issue or apply for proofs of origin, as the case may be, for the quantity of products which may be considered as originating. At the request of the customs authorities, the beneficiary shall provide a statement of how the quantities have been managed.

6. The customs authorities shall monitor the use made of the authorisation and may withdraw it at any time whenever the beneficiary makes improper use of the authorisation in any manner whatsoever or fails to fulfil any of the other conditions laid down in this Protocol.";

5. in the first sentence of Article 22(1), the following shall be inserted after the term "exporter":"hereinafter referred to as 'approved exporter',";

6. Article 30 shall be replaced by the following:

"Article 30

Amounts expressed in euro

1. For the application of the provisions of Article 21(1)(b) and Article 26(3) in cases where products are invoiced in a currency other than euro, amounts in the national currencies of the countries referred to in Articles 3 and 4 equivalent to the amounts expressed in euro shall be fixed annually by each of the countries concerned.

2. A consignment shall benefit from the provisions of Article 21(1)(b) or Article 26(3) by reference to the currency in which the invoice is drawn up, according to the amount fixed by the country concerned.

3. The amounts to be used in any given national currency shall be the equivalent in that currency of the amounts expressed in euro as at the first working day of October. The amounts shall be communicated to the European Commission by 15 October and shall apply from 1 January the following year. The European Commission shall notify all countries concerned of the relevant amounts.

4. A country may round up or down the amount resulting from the conversion into its national currency of an amount expressed in euro. The rounded-off amount may not differ from the amount resulting from the conversion by more than 5 per cent. A country may retain unchanged its national currency equivalent of an amount expressed in euro if, at the time of the annual adjustment provided for in paragraph 3, the conversion of that amount, prior to any rounding-off, results in an increase of less that 15 per cent in the national currency equivalent. The national currency equivalent may be retained unchanged if the conversion were to result in a decrease in that equivalent value.

5. The amounts expressed in euro shall be reviewed by the Association Committee at the request of the Community or the Slovak Republic. When carrying out this review, the Association Committee shall consider the desirability of preserving the effects of the limits concerned in real terms. For this purpose, it may decide to modify the amounts expressed in euro.";

7. Annex II shall be amended as follows:

The entry for HS heading 5309 to 5311 shall be replaced by:

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Article 2

This Decision shall enter into force on the day of its adoption.

It is applicable from 1 January 2001.

Done at Brussels, 22 February 2001.

For the Association Council

The President

A. Lindh

(1) OJ L 359, 31.12.1994, p. 2.