Commission Regulation (EC) No 1677/98 of 29 July 1998 amending Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 1998-07-29
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU law, customs territory (EU), customs union, legal code, simplification of formalities

L 212/18

‹

EN

‹

Official Journal of the European Communities

30. 7. 98

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1677/98

of 29 July 1998

amending Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the
implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the
Community Customs Code

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92
of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs
Code (1), as last amended by European Parliament and
Council Regulation (EC) No 82/97 (2), and in particular
Article 249 thereof,

Whereas the provisions of Commission Regulation (EEC)
No 2454/93 (3), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No
75/98 (4), regarding the customs value declarant, should be
aligned on those applicable to the customs declarant, in
order to have a more coherent application of both sets of
provisions;

Whereas Community legislation on outward processing
provides for cases in which authorisations are granted
pursuant to a decision of the Commission; whereas use of
the procedure should be simplified by amending the
procedure for granting authorisation to a person other
than the one arranging for the outward processing opera-
tions performed, with recourse to the Committee pro-
cedure as required;

Whereas in order to benefit from treatment as returned
goods, agricultural products must be reimported within 12
months of the date of acceptance of the export declara-
tion, with no possibility of an extension; whereas in the
light of experience, the customs authorities should be
permitted to allow this period to be exceeded in duly
justified exceptional circumstances; whereas in order to
ensure uniformity in the regularisation of refunds under
the common agricultural policy, details of cases should be
communicated to the Commission;

Whereas situations arise, particularly in the air-freight
sector,
in which large quantities of goods have to be
dispatched under conditions of considerable pressure;
whereas this can lead to errors in the designation of the
status of goods which are rectified at the initiative or on
behalf of the person concerned when the goods arrive at

(1) OJ L 302, 19. 10. 1992, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 17, 21. 1. 1997, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 253, 11. 10. 1993, p. 1.
(4) OJ L 7, 13. 1. 1998, p. 3.

their destination; whereas in such cases, where the goods
are subject only to post-clearance controls, they may be
regarded, provided that the error is put right without
damage to financial interests, as not having been removed
definitively from customs supervision; whereas this poss-
ibility should not be open to abuse;

Whereas it is appropriate to rationalise the procedures to
be implemented at Community level concerning, on the
one hand, situations not necessitating a subsequent entry
in the accounts of import duties or export duties and, on
the other hand, requests for repayment or remission of
import or export duties;

Whereas it is advisable to increase the existing threshold
below which the Member States themselves may decide,
unless they are in doubt, not to carry out subsequent
entry in the accounts of duty not charged when they
consider that all the conditions referred to in point (b) of
Article 220(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 (here-
inafter ‘the Code’) are met; whereas in addition, it is ad-
visable to lay down a threshold in ecus below which the
Member States themselves can decide, unless they are in
remission when they
doubt,
consider that the conditions referred to in Article 239(1)
of the Code are met;

repayment or

to grant

Whereas the right to a hearing, on the part of persons
affected by a decision on post-clearance entry in the
accounts of import or export duties and of applicants for
repayment or remission of import or export duties, should
be safeguarded; whereas, therefore, such interested parties
must be given the opportunity to give their comments in
writing on all the objections that the Commission envi-
sages making in its decisions; whereas this situation
requires an adjustment of the time limits for adoption of
those decisions by the Commission;

Whereas Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98 of 3 May
1998 concerning the introduction of the euro (5) provides
that the euro is to become the currency of the participat-
ing Member States from 1 January 1999; whereas the euro
is expressed, until 31 December 2001, in national mone-
tary units according to the conversion rates; whereas,

(5) OJ L 139, 11. 5. 1998, p. 1.

30. 7. 98

‹

EN

‹

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 212/19

consequently, there is a legal equivalence between the
euro unit and the national currency units; whereas, during
the transitional period, contracts, national laws and other
legal instruments can validly be established in the euro
unit or in the national monetary unit;

therefore,

Whereas,
it appears necessary to introduce
measures to adjust the rules for the Single Administrative
Document in order to allow the euro unit to be used;
whereas, consequently, it is necessary to amend Annex 37
to this end;

Whereas Council Regulation (EC) No 374/98 of 12
February 1998 amending Articles 6 and 9 of Regulation
(EC) No 1172/95 on the statistics relating to the trading
of goods by the Community and its Member States with
non-member countries (1) provides for the replacement
the country nomenclature
from 1 January 1999 of
currently used for the statistics relating to the trading of
goods by an alphabetical nomenclature based on the ISO
alpha-2 code;

Whereas it is therefore necessary to adjust the rules for
using the Single Administrative Document so as to take
account of this change; whereas Annex 38 should be
adjusted accordingly; whereas it is desirable, however, to
allow Member States to continue using the current codes
until Annexes 37 and 38 are replaced;

Whereas it is desirable to extend the list in Annex 87 on
economic grounds for certain electronic components and
the like, following the introduction of the Information
Technology Agreement;

2. Article 759(3) is replaced by the following:

‘3. Where more than one Member State is involved
in the export operations and an application for a
single authorisation is made, the procedure provided
for in Article 751(2) shall apply.

If there are objections to a draft authorisation, the
Commission may decide in accordance with the
Committee procedure whether the authorisation can
be issued and on what conditions’.

3. The following subparagraph is added to Article

844(4):

‘However, where the goods are declared for free circu-
lation after expiry of the period referred to in the first
subparagraph, the customs authorities of the Member
State of reimportation may allow the period to be
exceeded where exceptional circumstances justify this.
Where the customs authorities do allow the period to
be exceeded, they shall send details of the case to the
Commission’.

4. The following paragraph is added to Article 865:

‘However, in the case of airline companies authorised
to use a simplified transit procedure with the use of
an electronic manifest, the goods shall not be con-
sidered to have been removed from customs super-
vision if, at the initiative or on behalf of the person
concerned, they are treated in accordance with their
status as non-Community goods before the customs
authorities find the existence of an irregular situation
and if the behaviour of the person concerned does
not suggest any fraudulent dealing’.

Whereas the measures provided for by this Regulation are
in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code
Committee,

5. In Article 869(b), the term ‘ECU 2 000’ is replaced by

the term ‘ECU 50 000’.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 is amended as follows:

1. Article 178(2) is replaced by the following:

‘2.
The value declaration provided for in paragraph
1 shall be made only by a person established in the
Community and in possession of the relevant facts.

The second indent of Article 64(2)(b) and Article
64(3) of the Code shall apply mutatis mutandis’.

(1) OJ L 48, 19. 2. 1998, p. 6.

6. The following Article 872a is inserted:

‘Article 872a

Where, at any time in the procedure provided for in
Articles 872 and 873, the Commission intends to take
a decision unfavourable towards the person concerned
by the case presented, it shall communicate its objec-
tions to him/her in writing, together with all the
documents on which it bases those objections. The
person concerned by the case submitted to the
Commission shall express his/her point of view in
writing within a period of one month from the date
on which the objections were sent. If he/she does not
give a point of view within that period, he/she shall
be deemed to have waived the right to express a posi-
tion’.

7. Article 873 is amended as follows:

(a) In the first and second sentences of the second
paragraph, the words ‘six months’ are replaced by
the words ‘nine months’.

L 212/20

‹

EN

‹

Official Journal of the European Communities

30. 7. 98

(b) The following paragraph is added:

‘Where the Commission has communicated its
objections to the person concerned by the case
presented, in accordance with Article 872a, the
nine-month deadline shall be extended by a
period equivalent to that between the date on
which the Commission sent the objections and
the date on which it received the answer of the
person concerned or, in the absence of an answer,
the date of expiry of the period which was set to
give his/her point of view’.

8. In Article 905(1), the following second subparagraph

is inserted:

if

‘However, except
the decision-making customs
authority is in doubt, it can decide itself to grant
repayment or remission of
the duties in cases in
which it considers that the conditions laid down in
Article 239(1) of the Code are fulfilled, provided that
the amount concerned per operator in respect of one
or more import or export operations, but arising from
one and the same special situation, is less than ECU
50 000’.

were sent. If he/she does not give his/her point of
view within that period, he/she shall be deemed to
have waived the right to express a position’.

10. Article 907 is amended as follows:

(a) In the first and second sentences of the second
paragraph, the words ‘six months’ are replaced by
the words ‘nine months’.

(b) The following paragraph is added:

for

to the applicant

‘Where the Commission has communicated its
objections
repayment or
remission, in accordance with Article 906a, the
nine-month deadline shall be extended by a
period equivalent to that between the date on
which the Commission sent the objections and
the date on which it received the answer of the
interested party or, in the absence of an answer,
the date of the expiry of the period which was
given to him/her to give his/her point of view’.

11. Annex 37 is amended in accordance with Annex I

hereto.

12. Annex 38 is amended in accordance with Annex II

9. The following Article 906a is inserted:

hereto.

‘Article 906a
Where, at any time in the procedure provided for in
Articles 906 and 907, the Commission intends to take
a decision unfavourable towards the applicant
for
repayment or remission,
it shall communicate its
objections to him/her in writing, together with all the
documents on which it bases those objections. The
applicant for repayment or remission shall express
his/her point of view in writing within a period of
one month from the date on which the objections

13. Annex 87 is amended in accordance with Annex III

hereto.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the seventh day
following its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities.

Points 11 and 12 of Article 1 shall apply from 1 January
1999.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
States.

Done at Brussels, 29 July 1998.

For the Commission

Mario MONTI

Member of the Commission

30. 7. 98

‹

EN

‹

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 212/21

Annex 37 is amended as follows:

ANNEX I

1. The explanatory notes in title II, sections A and C for box 44 are supplemented by the following para-

graphs:

‘From 1 January 1999, the declarations made in the Member States which give the opportunity to oper-
ators to opt for the use of the euro unit for the establishment of their customs declarations will include in
this box, preferably in the subdivision in the bottom right-hand corner, an indicator of the currency unit,
national unit or euro unit, used.

Member States may provide that this indicator be entered only in box 44 for the first item of goods of the
declaration. In this case, the information will be deemed valid for all the good items of the declaration.

This indicator will be constituted by the iso-alpha-3 currency code (ISO 4217)’.

2. The first paragraph of the explanatory note in title II, section A, for box 46 is replaced by the following

text:

‘Enter the statistical value expressed in the currency unit the code for which may appear in box 44, or, in
the absence of such a code in box 44, in the currency of the Member State where the export formalities
are completed, in accordance with the Community provisions in force’.

3. The explanatory note in title II, section A for box 47 is completed with the following paragraph which is

inserted after the current text:

‘The amounts in this box are expressed in the currency unit the code for which may appear in box 44, or,
in the absence of such a code in box 44, in the currency of the Member State where the export formalities
are completed’.

4. The explanatory note in title II, section C for box 45 is completed with the following paragraph which is

inserted after the current text:

‘The amounts in this box are expressed in the currency unit the code for which may appear in box 44, or,
in the absence of such a code in box 44, in the currency of the Member State of destination’.

5. The first paragraph of the explanatory note in title II, section C, for box 46 is replaced by the following

text:

‘Enter the statistical value expressed in the currency unit the code for which may appear in box 44, or, in
the absence of such a code in box 44, in the currency of the Member State of destination, in accordance
with the Community provisions in force’.

6. The explanatory note in title II, section C for box 47 is completed with the following paragraph which is

inserted after the current text:

‘The amounts in this box are expressed in the currency unit the code for which may appear in box 44, or,
in the absence of such a code in box 44, in the currency of the Member State of destination’.

L 212/22

‹

EN

‹

Official Journal of the European Communities

30. 7. 98

ANNEX II

Annex 38 is amended as follows:

The explanatory note to box 22 (invoice currency) is replaced by the following:

‘The invoice currency is to be indicated by means of the ISO alpha-3 currency code (ISO 4217).

However, Member States may continue to use the three-digit geonomenclature codes adopted by virtue of
Article 9 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 (*).

(*) OJ L 118, 25. 5. 1995, p. 10.’

The following point is added to Annex 87:

ANNEX III

Order
No

‘18

Column 1

Column 2

Goods for which
processing under customs
control is authorised

Processing which may
be carried out

Any electronic type of components, parts,
assemblies
(including sub-assemblies), or
materials (whether or not electronic), which
are vital
to the electronic working per-
formance of the processed product

Processing into information technology
products falling within:

1. a CN subheading

found on the
“EC-ITA-schedule CXL” of Council
Decision 97/359/EC (*) where a duty
exemption operates on the date of
authorisation, or

2. a CN subheading provided for

in
Articles 1, 2 or 3 of Council Regulation
(EC) No 2216/97 (**) where an auto-
nomous suspension of duty operates on
the date of authorisation

(*) OJ L 155, 12. 6. 1997, p. 1 (the In-
formation Technology Agreement).

(**) OJ L 305, 8. 11. 1997, p. 1.’