CELEX: 31974D0281
Language: en
Date: 1974-05-08 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 8 May 1974 authorizing the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands to postpone raising their customs tariff duties to the level of those of the Common Customs Tariff as regards manufactured tobacco falling within tariff subheadings 24.02 A, B, C and D

No L 152/ 10                         Official Journal of the European Communities                               8 . 6. 74
                                                              II
                                         (Acts whose publication is not obligatory)
                                                 COMMISSION
                                                 COMMISSION DECISION
                                                      of 8 May 1974
                authorizing the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Kingdom
                of the Netherlands to postpone raising their customs tariff duties to the level of those of
                the Common Customs Tariff as regards manufactured tobacco falling within tariff
                                            subheadings 24.02 A, B, C and D
                                      (Only the French and Dutch texts are authentic)
                                                        (74/281/EEC)
 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                   Whereas the consequences specified above cannot be
 COMMUNITIES ,                                                    avoided by means of a general reduction in excise
                                                                  duties on the relevant products since such a re­
                                                                  duction would have serious implications for
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                     budgetary revenue ; whereas it can therefore be
 European Economic Community, and in particular                   accepted that the Benelux States are faced with
 Article 26 thereof;                                              special difficulties ;
 Having regard to the letter of 11 March 1973 by                  Whereas the Council has adopted a Directive (2)
 which the Kingdom of Belgium, acting on behalf of               on taxes other than turnover taxes affecting the
 the Benelux countries, requested authorization to                consumption of manufactured tobacco whose object
 postpone raising their customs tariff duties on                  is the progressive harmonization of existing duties on
 manufactured tobacco falling within subheading                  these products ; whereas, although the difficulties
 24.02 A, B, C and D ;                                           facing the Benelux countries could be removed by
                                                                 implementation of that Directive, this will not be
Whereas, pursuant to the Council Decision of 26                  the case during the period from 1 July 1974 to 30
July 1966 ( 1 ), the Benelux States should have applied           June 1975 which forms the first stage of the
the Common Customs Tariff duties to manufactured                  harmonization which is the object of the Directive;
tobacco coming from third countries at full rate                 whereas it is also highly, possible that, at a
 from 1 July 1968 ;                                              subsequent stage, the Council will make substantial
                                                                 changes to the Common Customs Tariff duties on
Whereas, in view of the tax system in force in the               the relevant products ; whereas application of a
Benelux States, implementation of the Common                     measure of derogation such as the authorization
Customs Tariff duties would have involved a sub­                 provided for by Article 26 of the Treaty can be
stantial increase in the total tax burden on                     granted only for a limited period ; whereas the period
manufactured tobacco coming from third countries                 of validity of the authorization granted under Article
and would thus have caused a considerable increase               26 should therefore be limited to 30 June 1975 ;
in the sales price to consumers ; whereas this would
have impeded importation of manufactured tobacco                 Whereas in view of the nature of the difficulties
from third countries to the Benelux States ;                     faced by the Member States in question, this
(*) OJ No 165, 21 . 9. 1966, p. 2971 /66.                        (2) OJ No L 303 , 31 . 12. 1972 , p. 1 .
 ---pagebreak--- 8 . 6. 74                         Official Journal of the European Communities                         No L 152/ 11
Decision should apply only to products imported              postpone raising their customs tariff duties to the
from third countries into those Member States for            level of those of the Common Customs Tariff for
direct consumption ;                                         manufactured tobacco falling within subheadings
                                                             24.02 A, B, C and D, imported from third countries
Whereas imports of manufactured tobacco covered              into the said Member States for direct consumption.
by this Decision and imports which may be effected
under other authorization do not represent, for the
Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of                                              Article 2
Luxembourg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands,
more than 5% of the total value of the imports from
third countries in the course of the last year for
                                                             This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of
which statistics are available,                              Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the
                                                             Kingdom of the Netherlands.
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
                                                             Done at Brussels , 8 May 1974.
                        Article 1
                                                                                             For the Commission
From 1 July 1974 to 30 June 1975, the Kingdom                                                   The President
of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and
the Kingdom of the Netherlands are authorized to                                           Francois-Xavier ORTOLI