Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2000 of 31 January 2000 amending Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and the Common Customs Tariff
Date: 2000-01-31
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: common customs tariff, tariff nomenclature

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Official Journal of the European Communities

3. 2. 2000

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 254/2000

of 31 January 2000

amending Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and the Common
Customs Tariff

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

in particular Articles 26 and 133 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 (1), provides the legal basis
for the establishment and management of the Combined
Nomenclature,
the Common Customs Tariff and the
Integrated Tariff of the Communities (Taric);

It
is appropriate to modernise and to simplify the
presentation and the management of Regulation (EEC)
No 2658/87 as envisaged by the SLIM initiative (Simpler
Legislation for the Internal Market);

The data contained in Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 and
other data published by virtue of the said Regulation,
and in particular Articles 6 and 9 thereof, should, when-
ever possible, also be made available to the public in
electronic format;

The schedule of customs duties in Annex I, Part II, to
Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 includes in columns 3
and 4 respectively the autonomous and the conventional
duty rates; with a view to rationalising and simplifying
the use of this schedule, only one of these columns
should be maintained and this column should reflect the
conventional duty rates; any exception from the applica-
tion of a conventional rate of duty by autonomous
measures should nevertheless be indicated;

Statistical requirements are normally covered at the level
of the Combined Nomenclature; in order to limit the
number of CN subheadings and to avoid parallel data
collection systems it is,
in certain cases, more appro-
priate to satisfy such requirements by creating Taric
subdivisions for statistical purposes;

A code of conduct for managing the CN has been estab-
lished in order to limit the unjustified growth in the
number of CN codes and statistical subdivisions of the
Taric;

The current definition of the Taric, the coverage of its
measures, the composition of its codes and the descrip-
tion of its management, data transmission and publica-

(1) OJ L 256, 7.9.1987, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation

(EC) No 2204/1999 (OJ L 278, 28.10.1999, p. 1).

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

tion should be revised in order to take account of recent
developments;

The collaboration of Member States' customs labora-
tories should be encouraged in order
to ensure a
uniform application of the Common Customs Tariff and
the Taric;

it

The Customs Tariff of the European Communities has
been defined by Article 20(3) of Council Regulation
(EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the
is consequently no
Community Customs Code (2);
longer necessary to provide a definition of the Common
Customs Tariff
the
in this Regulation;
Combined Nomenclature for external trade statistics has
already been set out in Article 1 of Regulation (EEC) No
2658/87 and in Article 8 of Council Regulation (EC) No
1172/95 of 22 May 1995 on the statistics relating to the
trading of goods by the Community and its Member
States with non-member countries (3); Article 4 of Regu-
lation (EEC) No 2658/87 can therefore be deleted;

the use of

Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July
1993 laying down provisions for the implementation of
Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the
Community Customs Code (4), sets out the rules for the
codes
at
Community and Member State level;

entered in customs declarations

to be

The measures necessary for the implementation of Regu-
lation (EEC) No 2658/87 should be adopted in accord-
ance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June
1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of
implementing powers conferred on the Commission (5),

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 is hereby amended as follows:

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

A goods nomenclature, hereinafter

‘1.
called the
“Combined Nomenclature”, or in abbreviated form “CN”,
which meets 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 shall
be established by the Commission.’;

(2) OJ L 302, 19.10.1992, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regula-

tion (EC) No 955/1999 (OJ L 119, 7.5.1999. p. 1).

(3) OJ L 118, 25.5.1995, p. 10. Regulation as last amended by Regula-

tion (EC) No 374/98 (OJ L 48, 19.2.1998, p. 1).

(4) OJ L 253, 11.10.1993, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regula-

tion (EC) No 1662/1999 (OJ L 197, 29.7.1999, p. 25).

(5) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

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2. Article 1(3) shall be replaced by the following:

The Combined Nomenclature is

‘3.
reproduced in
Annex I. The rates of duty of the Common Customs Tariff
and, where applicable, the supplementary statistical units
as well as other necessary information are laid down in the
said Annex.

3. Member States may add subdivisions or additional
codes for national purposes.
Identifying codes shall be
assigned to such subdivisions or additional codes in
accordance with Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93.’;

6. Article 6 shall be replaced by the following:

The Annex comprises the conventional rates of duty.

‘Article 6

However, whenever autonomous rates of duty are lower
than the conventional rates of duty or where conventional
rates of duty do not apply, the autonomous rates are also
shown in the said Annex.’;

3. Article 2 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Article 2

An Integrated Tariff of the European Communities, herein-
after referred to as the “Taric”, which meets the require-
ments of the Common Customs Tariff, external trade stat-
istics, the commercial, agricultural and other Community
policies concerning the importation or exportation of
goods, shall be established by the Commission.

The tariff shall be based on the Combined Nomenclature
and include:

(a) the measures contained in this Regulation;

(b) the additional Community subdivisions, referred to as
“Taric subheadings”, which are needed for the imple-
mentation of specific Community measures listed in
Annex II;

(c) any other information necessary for the implementa-
tion or management of the Taric codes and additional
codes as defined in Article 3(2) and (3);

(d) the rates of customs duty and other import and export
charges,
including duty exemptions and preferential
tariff rates applicable to specific goods on importation
or exportation;

(e) measures

shown in Annex II applicable on the

importation and exportation of specific goods.’;

4. Article 4 shall be deleted;

5. Article 5 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Article 5

1.
The Taric shall be used by the Commission and the
Member States for the application of Community measures
concerning importation into and exportation from the
Community.

2.
Taric codes and Taric additional codes shall be
applied to the importation and, where applicable, to the
exportation of goods covered by the corresponding
subheadings.

The Taric shall be established, updated, managed and
disseminated by the Commission, which shall, wherever
possible, use computerised means. The Commission shall,
in particular, take the necessary steps to:

(a) integrate all measures contained in this Regulation or

shown in Annex II thereto into the Taric,

(b) attribute Taric codes and Taric additional codes,

(c) update the Taric immediately,

(d) disseminate in electronic format changes to the Taric

immediately.’

7. In Article 9(1), subparagraph (a) shall be replaced by the

following:

‘(a) application of the Combined Nomenclature and the

Taric, concerning in particular:

— the classification of goods in the nomenclatures

referred to in Article 8;

— explanatory notes;

— the creation, if necessary, and for the purpose of
responding to the Community's own needs, of stat-
istical subheadings in the Taric, when to do so
appears more appropriate than in the CN;’;

8. In Article 9(1), subparagraph (g) shall be replaced by the

following:

‘(g) questions relating to the application, functioning and
management of
the harmonised system to be
discussed within the Customs Cooperation Council, as
well as their implementation by the Community.’;

9. Article 9(2) shall be replaced by the following:

The provisions adopted under paragraph 1 shall not

‘2.
amend:

— the rates of customs duties;

— agricultural duties, refunds or other amounts applicable
within the framework of
the common agricultural
policy or within that of specific schemes applicable to
certain goods resulting from the processing of agricul-
tural products;

— quantitative restrictions laid down under Community

provisions;

— nomenclatures adopted within the framework of the

common agricultural policy.’;

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10. Article 10 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Article 10
1.
The Commission shall be assisted by the Customs
Code Committee set up by Article 247 of Regulation (EEC)
No 2913/92 (*).
2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 4
and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC (**) shall apply.
The period laid down in Article 4(3) of Decision 1999/
468/EC shall be set at three months.

(*) OJ L 302, 19.10.1992, p. 1. Regulation as last
amended by Regulation (EC) No 955/1999 (OJ L 119,
7.5.1999, p. 1).

(**) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.’.;

11. Article 12 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Article 12
The Commission shall adopt each year, a regula-
1.
tion reproducing the complete version of the Combined
Nomenclature, together with the rates of duty in accord-
ance with Article 1, as resulting from measures adopted

by the Council or the Commission. The said Regulation
later than 31 October in the
shall be published not
Official
the European Communities and it shall
Journal of
apply from 1 January of the following year.

2. Measures and information concerning the Common
Customs Tariff or Taric shall, whenever possible, be
disseminated in electronic format by using computerised
means.

3.
In order to ensure the uniform application of the
Common Customs Tariff and the Taric, the Commission
shall promote coordination and harmonisation of prac-
tices
laboratories, using
wherever possible, computerised means.’;

in Member States'

customs

12. Article 13 shall be deleted.

Article 2

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

This Regulation shall apply from 1 January 2000.

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

Done at Brussels, 31 January 2000.

For the Council

The President

J. PINA MOURA