Brussels, 24/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has published the new, updated and simplified EU customs tariff.
Updating is the result of not only taking into consideration all the results of the Uruguay Round, but also of many Council regulations (and sometimes of the Commission itself), which have brought changes to the customs duties applicable, the latest being a regulation approved by the Council on 8 June.
Simplification is mainly the result of the Council regulation No254/2000, published in the Official Journal N.L/28 of 3 February aimed at modifying the tariff and statistical nomenclature as well as the customs tariff. At present, the tariff only comprises a single column indicating the rates of conventional duties. When they exist, the autonomous duties (applied by the EU of its own initiative, outside negotiations with third countries) are indicated as a footnote, when they are lower than the convention duties (which is nearly always the case).
Several annexes specify the application of the "entry prices" for certain agricultural products, the list of pharmaceutical substances and other substances that may be imported free of duties, reduced duty tariff quotas or zero duty quotas negotiated in the context of the WTO, etc.