Proposal for a Council Regulation temporarily suspending the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain goods imported with airworthiness certificates
Date: 2002-03-18
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: CCT duties, aeronautical industry, import, industrial product, simplification of formalities, suspension of customs duties

30.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 181 E/293

Proposal for a Council Regulation temporarily suspending the autonomous Common Customs
Tariff duties on certain goods imported with airworthiness certificates

(2002/C 181 E/14)

COM(2002) 147 final

(Submitted by the Commission on 18 March 2002)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 26 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

good reason to believe that airworthiness certificates have
been falsified and where the matter cannot be resolved
otherwise. However, before taking such action, customs
authorities should weigh the costs entailed against
the
import volume and the amount of duty at risk, so as to
avoid a situation where it transpires that no infringement
has been committed, but the benefit to the importer of the
duty suspension has been nullified by the cost of procuring
the expert opinion.

Whereas:

(1) Customs procedures

imports of parts,
for duty-free
components and other goods used for the manufacture,
repair, maintenance, rebuilding, modification or conversion
of aircraft should be simplified.

(2) In order to achieve that aim, it is appropriate to suspend
autonomous customs duties on imports of such goods
imported with airworthiness certificates issued by a party
authorised by aviation authorities within the Community
or in a third country.

(3) In view of

that

the fact

the prices

for parts and
components used in the aircraft sector are usually at least
three times higher than the prices for similar goods used
for other purposes, the risk that the goods imported duty
free might be used in other industrial areas is very small.

customs

these companies

(4) Suspension would alleviate the administrative burden for
the economic operators in the aircraft sector since it
to use
would reduce the need for
suspensive
tariff
favourable
regimes
inward
treatment for goods by reason of their end-use,
processing relief or customs warehousing. Furthermore, it
would enable small and medium-sized enterprises, which
have hitherto been unable to use suspensive customs
regimes, to become more competitive with regard to the
bigger operators in this area.

like

(7) The Commission should prepare a report on the basis of
the information received from Member States about their
experience in applying this Regulation,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

The autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties shall be
suspended for parts, components and other goods of a kind
to be incorporated in or used for civil aircraft and falling
within Chapters 25 to 97 of the Common Customs Tariff
and in respect of which an airworthiness certificate has been
issued by a party authorised by European aviation authorities
or the aviation authorities of a third country.

Article 2

The suspension laid down in Article 1 shall be condi-
1.
tional on submission of the original airworthiness certificate
to the customs authorities when the goods are declared for
release into free circulation.

(5) Since airworthiness certificates do not always accompany
the goods during transport, a procedure should be laid
down under which customs authorities would be able to
identify the certificates during on-spot checks after the
product has been released for free circulation.

certificate

the original

Where
cannot be
airworthiness
submitted at the time when the goods are released for free
circulation, suspension shall be conditional on the inclusion
in
of a declaration,
question, on the commercial invoice or a document annexed
thereto. A model of the required declaration is set out in
Section A of the Annex.

signed by the seller of

the goods

(6) In view of the complexity of the rules in the aviation
sector, customs authorities should be able, at the expense
of the importer, to call upon the expertise of a represen-
tative of the national aviation authorities where they have

2.
In field 44 of the Single Administrative Document (‘SAD’)
the text set out in Section B of the Annex shall be inserted by
the importer.

C 181 E/294

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

30.7.2002

3. Where goods are released for free circulation under
simplified procedures in accordance with Council Regulation
(EEC) No 2913/92 (1), the importer shall
insert in the SAD
(field 44) or in any authorised document replacing the SAD
the text set out in Section B of the Annex.

In such cases, customs authorities shall take into account the
import volume and the amount of duty at risk,
in order to
prevent the benefit to the importer of the duty suspension
being nullified by the cost of procuring the expert opinion, if
the investigation shows that the rules for the issuing of those
certificates have not been infringed.

suspension shall be

In such cases
conditional on the
submission of the documents referred to in paragraph 1 in
accordance with the terms of
the
the time when the supplementary
simplified procedure at
declaration is submitted to the competent customs office.

the authorisation of

Article 3

Where the customs authorities have good reason to suspect
that airworthiness certificates have been falsified and where
the matter cannot be resolved otherwise, they may request
the national
an expert opinion from a representative of
aviation authorities at the expense of the importer.

(1) OJ L 302, 19.10.1992, p. 1.

Article 4

No later than three years after the entry into force of this
Regulation the Commission shall submit
to the Council a
report on the application of that Regulation based on the
information received from Member States.

Article 5

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

It shall apply from 1 April 2002.

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

A. Declaration on the commercial invoice or a document annexed to such invoice (Article 2(1)):

ANNEX

B. Text to be inserted in field 44 of the Single Administrative Document (Article 2(2) and (3)):

‘Import with airworthiness certificate’