CELEX: 31973D0281
Language: en
Date: 1973-06-29 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 29 June 1973 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 tabacco falling within tariff subheadings Nos 24.02 A, B, C and D

No L 256/22                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                 13 . 9 . 73
                                                                 II
                                            (Acts whose publication is not obligatory)
                                                     COMMISSION
                                                   COMMISSION DECISION
                                                         of 29 June 1973
                 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 Nos 24.02 A, B , C and D
                                        (Only the French and Dutch texts are authentic)
                                                            (73/281 /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 reduction
                                                                      would have series implications for budgetary revenue ;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
                                                                      whereas it can therefore be accepted that the Benelux
Economic Community, and in particular Article 26
thereof ;
                                                                      States are faced with special difficulties ;
Having regard to the letter of 15 February 1973 by
which the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, acting on
behalf of the Benelux countries, requested authoriza­
tion to postpone raising their customs tariff duties on
manufactured tobacco falling within subheadings Nos
24.02 A, B, C and D ;                                                 Whereas the Council has adopted a Directive (2 ) on
                                                                      taxes other than turnover taxes affecting the consump­
                                                                      tion of manufactured tobacco whose object is the
Whereas, pursuant to the Council Decision of 26 July
                                                                      progressive harmonization of existing duties on these
 1 966 ( 1 ), the Benelux states should have applied the
Common          Customs    Tariff   duties      to manufactured
                                                                      products ; whereas, although the difficulties facing the
                                                                      Benelux countries could be removed by implementa­
tobacco coming from third countries at full rate from
                                                                      tion of that Directive, this will not be the case during
 1 July 1968 ;                                                        the period from 1 July 1973 to 30 June 1974 which
                                                                      forms the first stage of the harmonization which is the
Whereas, in view of the tax system in force in the                    object of the Directive ; whereas it is also highly
 Benelux states, implementation of the Common                         possible that, at a subsequent stage, the Council will
Customs Tariff duties would have involved a substan­                  make substantial changes to the Common Customs
tial increase in the total tax burden on manufactured                 Tariff duties on the relevant products ; whereas appli­
tobacco coming from third countries and would thus                    cation of a measure of derogation such as the authori­
have caused a considerable increase in the sales price                zation provided for by Article 26 of the Treaty can be
to consumers ; whereas this would have impeded                        granted only for a limited period ; whereas the period
importation of manufactured tobacco from third coun­                  of validity of the authorization granted under Article
tries to the Benelux States ;                                         26 should therefore be limited to 30 June 1974 ;
(') O ) No 165 , 21 . 9 . 1966, p . 2971 / 66 .                       (') OJ No L. .}(>.},  12 . 1972 , n . I.
 ---pagebreak--- 13 . 9 . 73                        Official Journal of the European Communities                         No L 256/23
Whereas in view of the nature of the difficulties faced       Kingdom of the Netherlands are authorized to post­
by the Member States in question, this decision               pone raising their customs tariff duties to the level of
should apply only to products imported from third             those of the Common Customs Tariff for manufac­
countries   into    those  Member     States  for  direct     tured tobacco falling within subheadings Nos 24.02 A,
consumption ;                                                 B, C and D, imported from third countries into the
                                                              said Member States for direct consumption .
Whereas imports of manufactured tobacco covered by
this Decision and imports which may be effected
under other authorization do not represent, for the                                  Article 2
Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxem­
bourg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, more               This decision is addressed to the Kingdom of
than 5 % of the total value of the imports from third         Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the
countries in the course of the last year for which statis­    Kingdom of the Netherlands.
tics are available ;
                                                              Done at Brussels, 29 June 1973 .
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
                                                                                        For the Commission
                         Article 1
                                                                                           The President
From 1 July 1973 to 30 June 1974, the Kingdom of
Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the                                        Frangois-Xavier ORTOLI