CELEX: 31975D0536
Language: en
Date: 1975-07-09 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 9 July 1975 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

9 . 9 . 75                                Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 237/ 19
                                                                   II
                                              (Acts whose publication is not obligatory)
                                                      COMMISSION
                                                     COMMISSION DECISION
                                                           of 9 July 1975
                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)
                                                             (75/536/ 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
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                  would have serious implications for budgetary
                                                                       revenue ; whereas it can therefore be accepted that the
Economic Community, and in particular Article 26
thereof ;
                                                                       Benelux States are faced with special difficulties ;
Having regard to the letter of 27 March 1975 by
^ hich the Kingdom of the Netherlands, acting on                       Whereas application of a measure of derogation such
behalf of the Benelux countries, requested authoriza­                  as the authorization provided for by Article 26 of the
tion to postpone raising their customs tariff duties on                Treaty can be granted only for a limited period ;
manufactured tobacco falling within subheading 24.02                   whereas the period of validity of the authorization
A, B, C and D ;                                                        granted under Article 26 should therefore be limited
                                                                       to 30 June 1 976 ;
Whereas, pursuant to the Council Decision of 26 July
1 966 ( 1 ), the Benelux States should have applied the
Common         Customs      Tariff    duties     to manufactured       Whereas in view of the nature of the difficulties faced
tobacco coming from third countries at full rate from                  by the Member States in question , this Decision
 1 July 1 968 ;                                                        should apply only to products imported from third
                                                                       countries   into     those Member     States  for  direct
                                                                       consumption ;
Whereas, in view of the tax system in force in the
Benelux States, implementation of the Common
Customs Tariff duties would have involved a substan­
tial increase in the total tax burden on manufactured                  Whereas imports of manufactured tobacco covered by
tobacco coming from third countries and would thus                     this Decision and imports which may be effected
have caused a considerable increase in the sales price                 under other authorization do not represent, for the
to consumers ; whereas this would have impeded                         Kingdom of Belgium , the Grand Duchy of Luxem­
importation of manufactured tobacco from third coun­                   bourg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, more
tries to the Benelux States ;                                          than 5 % of the total value of the imports from third
                                                                       countries in the course of the last year for which statis­
(') 0 | No 1 65 , 21 . 9 . 1966 , p . 2971 /66 .                       tics are available ,
 ---pagebreak--- No L 237 / 20                     Official Journal of the European Communities                           9 . 9 . 75
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :                                                        Article 2
                                                            This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of
                       Article 1
                                                             Belgium , the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the
From 1 July 1975 to 30 June 1976, the Kingdom of             Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Belgium , the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the
Kingdom of the Netherlands are authorized to post­           Done at Brussels, 9 July 1975.
pone raising their customs tariff duties to the level of
those of the Common Customs Tariff for manufac­                                      For the Commission
tured tobacco falling within subheadings 24.02 A, B,                                     The President
C and D, imported from third countries into the said
Member States for direct consumption .                                              Francois-Xavier ORTOLI