S.I. No. 216/1977 - European Communities (Customs) Regulations, 1977.

S.I. No. 216 of 1977.

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (CUSTOMS) REGULATIONS, 1977.

I, RICHIE RYAN, Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), and for the purpose of giving effect to Council Directive No. 69/73/EEC of 4 March, 1969¹, Council Directive No. 76/119/EEC of 18 December, 1975², Commission Directive No. 76/447/EEC of 4 May, 1976³ and Commission Directive No. 76/527/EEC of 4 June, 1976⁴, hereby make the following Regulations:

¹ OJ No. L58, 8/3/1969, p. 1.

² OJ No. L24, 30/1/1976, p.58.

³ OJ No. L121, 8/5/1976, p.52.

⁴ OJ No. L153, 12/6/1976, p. 43.

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Customs) Regulations, 1977.

2. These Regulations shall come into operation on the 1st day of July, 1977.

3. (1) In these Regulations—

"authorisation" means a general or special authorisation granted by the competent authority of a member State to natural or legal persons established within the Community to undertake an outward processing arrangement;

"Common Customs Tariff " means the tariff of the European Communities estatblished by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 950/68 of 28 June, 1968⁵;

⁵OJ No. L172, 22/7/1968, p. 1.

"Community" means the European Economic Community;

"compensating products" means products produced or manufactured under an outward processing arrangement by one or more of the following operations—

( a ) working of goods, including fitting or assembling them or adjusting them to other goods;

( b ) processing of goods;

( c ) repair of goods, including restoring them to their original condition and putting them in order;

"import duties" means customs duties chargeable in the State (but does not include value-added tax or excise duties chargeable on goods imported into the State), and charges having equivalent effect, and agricultural levies and other import charges imposed under the common agricultural policy of the Community or of the specific arrangements applicable under Article 235 of the Treaty establishing the Community to certain goods resulting from the processing of agricultural products;

"intermediate products" means products produced or manufactured from goods which have been exported under an outward processing arrangement but have not been processed to the extent provided for in the relevant authorisation;

"inward processing arrangement" means an arrangement whereby goods are imported for the purpose of being processed and subsequently exported in accordance with the provisions of Council Directive No. 69/73/EEC;

"member State" means the territory of any country within the customs territory of the Community,

"outside the Community" means outside the customs territory of the Community;

"outward processing arrangement" means an arrangement whereby goods are exported outside the Community either from the State or another member State, for the purpose of being processed and subsequently reimported in the form of compensating products either into the State or another member State under total or partial relief from import duty, in accordance with the provisions of Council Directive No. 76/119/EEC;

"tariff heading" includes tariff subheading.

(2) For the purposes of these Regulations and Council Directive No. 69/73/EEC of 4 March, 1969, Council Directive No. 76/119/EEC of 18 December, 1975 and Commission Directive No. 76/447/EEC of 4 May, 1976, the competent authority in the State shall be the Revenue Commissioners and in these Regulations "the competent authority" shall be construed accordingly.

(3) A word or expression that is used in these Regulations and is also used in a Directive or Regulation of the Community referred to in these Regulations shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning in these Regulations that it has in the Directive or Regulation, as the case may be.

(4) A reference in these Regulations to a Directive or Regulation of the Community that was amended before the commencement of these Regulations is a reference to that Directive or Regulation, as the case may be, as so amended.

4. (1) Subject to paragraph (4) of this Regulation, any import duty which, apart from these Regulations, would be chargeable on compensating products on their importation into the State shall be reduced by an amount determined in accordance with the provisions of Regulations 8 and 9 of these Regulations and, if the amount of that duty is equal to or less than the amount so determined, that duty shall not be charged.

(2) Notwithstanding the definition of "outward processing arrangement" in these Regulations, the Revenue Commissioners may, in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations, allow the reduction of duty provided for in paragraph (1) of this Regulation in respect of the duty on—

( a ) goods which were exported under an outward processing arrangement and are imported into the State in the same state as they were in when exported, and

( b ) intermediate products,

as if they were compensating products and, unless the context otherwise requires, references in these Regulations to compensating products shall be read as including references to goods of the descriptions mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of this paragraph.

(3) Where import duty is chargeable on compensating products imported from other member States, then, notwithstanding the definition of " outward processing arrangement " in these Regulations—

( a ) the goods concerned shall be treated as being under an outward processing arrangement if they have been exported to a member State either from the State or another member State with a view to their reimportation into the State or another member State in the form of compensating products, and

( b ) the reduction of import duty provided for in paragraph (1) of this Regulation shall apply equally to the goods referred to at sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph on their reimportation as it applies on the importation of compensating products.

(4) The foregoing provisions of this Regulation shall apply in relation to goods only if the goods when exported—

( a ) satisfy the conditions of Articles 9 (2) and 10 (1) of the Treaty establishing the Community without the exportation having given or giving rise to any remission or repayment of import duties or any payment of Community export refunds, or

( b ) are held under an inward processing arrangement,

and are the subject of an authorisation.

5. The provisions of section 28 of the Finance Act, 1935 (No. 28 of 1935), shall not apply to import duties chargeable on any goods reimported into the State:

Provided that nothing in these Regulations shall have the effect of varying the amount of excise duty or value-added tax, if any, chargeable on goods reimported into the State under section 28 of the Finance Act, 1935 , and

Provided also that the said provisions shall continue to have effect in relation to import duties chargeable on goods exported on or before the 30th day of June, 1977, and reimported on or before the 30th day of June, 1978.

6. (1) An application for the grant of an authorisation shall be made to the Minister for Industry and Commerce before the exportation of the goods and if the Minister for Industry and Commerce so recommends, the competent authority shall grant the authorisation.

(2) An application under paragraph (1) of this Regulation shall be in such form and contain such information as the Minister for Industry and Commerce shall require.

(3) The competent authority may, after consultation with the Minister for Industry and Commerce, specify in an authorisation such conditions as they think necessary and, in particular but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, shall specify—

( a ) the rates of yield, that is to say, the quantity of compensating products to be derived from a given quantity of the exported goods,

( b ) the arrangements for identifying the exported goods in the compensating products to be imported, and

( c ) the time limit for the importation of the compensating products, and the compensating products shall not be granted relief from import duty unless the person to whom the authorisation is granted complies with the conditions so specified.

7. Subject to such conditions as they may think fit to impose, the competent authority may allow—

( a ) goods held under an inward processing arrangement and exported for outward processing to be readmitted to an inward processing arrangement on their reimportation into the State,

( b ) goods which have been exported under an outward processing arrangement to be admitted to an inward processing arrangement in the State on their reimportation.

8. (1) Subject to the following provisions of this Regulation, the amount of the reduction of import duty referred to in Regulation 4 (1) of these Regulations is the amount that would be chargeable on importation into the State of goods covered by an outward processing arrangement if those goods were imported from the country in which the resultant compensating products underwent their last processing operation, and the goods used in the compensating products were in the state they were in when temporarily exported and the quantity thereof was the quantity so exported.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1) of this Regulation, where compensating products are entered for home use on or after importation, the amount of import duty that would be chargeable shall be calculated on the basis of the value and at the rate, if any, applicable on the date of entry for home use of the compensating products.

(3) For the purpose of paragraph (1) of this Regulation, where compensating products are admitted to an inward processing arrangement on or after importation, the amount of import duty that would be chargeable in respect of them shall be calculated on the basis of the value and at the rate, if any, applicable on the date of the entry for inward processing of the compensating products.

(4) Where goods exported under an outward processing arrangement could, on importation into the State, have been classified in a particular tariff heading by reason of a specified end use, then, the amount of the reduction of import duty referred to in paragraph (1) of this Regulation shall be calculated at the rate applicable to goods in that tariff heading to the extent that the exported goods were so used in the country where the last processing operation took place.

(5) Where compensating products qualify on importation for any preferential rate of import duty, then the amount of the reduction of import duty referred to in paragraph (1) of this Regulation shall be calculated as if the goods in question qualified for a similar preferential rate of import duty.

(6) Where compensating products produced or manufactured from goods exported from another member State are subsequently imported into the State then, if import duties are chargeable in respect of the goods in trade between that member State and the State, the amount of the reduction of import duty referred to in paragraph (1) of this Regulation, shall be reduced by the amount of import duty, if any, which would have been chargeable in respect of the exported goods, if they had been imported directly into the State from that member State.

9. In calculating the amount of the reduction provided for in Regulation 4 (1) of these Regulations, account shall not be taken of—

( a ) any monetary compensatory amounts chargeable under Council Regulation (EEC) No. 974/71, of 12 May, 1971⁶,

⁶ OJ No. L106, 12/5/1971, p.1.

( b ) any accession compensatory amount chargeable under Article 55 of the Act annexed to the Treaty relating to the accession of Ireland to the European Economic Community and to the European Atomic Energy Community,

( c ) any additional amounts provided for by—

(i) Article 14 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No. 2727/75, of 29 October, 1975⁷,

⁷ OJ No. L281, 1/11/1975, p.1

(ii) Article 13 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No. 2759/75, of 29 October, 1975⁸,

⁸OJ No. L282, 1/11/1975, p.1.

(iii) Article 8 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No. 2771/75, of 29 October, 1975⁹, or

⁹OJ No. L282, 1/11/1975, p.49.

(iv) Article 8 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No. 2777/75, of 29 October, 1975¹⁰,

¹⁰ OJ No. L282, 1/11/1975, p.77.

which would be applicable to the exported goods if they were imported into the State from the country in which they were subjected to processing or to the last processing operation.

10. Whenever goods are held under an inward processing arrangement in a member State immediately prior to their being exported under an outward processing arrangement and the relevant compensating products are later entered for home use in the State, they shall not qualify for relief from import duties under these Regulations unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Revenue Commissioners that any import duty from which the exported goods had been granted relief under the inward processing arrangement in the member State in which they were held under an inward processing arrangement and which would fall due on their entry for home use in that member State has been paid or secured on their entry for home use in the State.

11. (1) Subject to paragraph (2) of this Regulation, where goods have been exported in pursuance of a guarantee or other agreement or legal requirement to effect their repair or to rectify manufacturing faults in them, the importation of the relevant compensating products into the State shall be allowed without payment of import duty if the conditions attached to the relevant authorisation are complied with.

(2) Paragraph (1) of this Regulation shall not, however, apply if at the time when the exported goods were first taken into home use whether in the State or another member State the defective state of the goods was taken into account in determining their value for customs purposes.

12. Compensating products imported under an outward processing arrangement shall qualify for a reduction of import duties under these Regulations if—

( a ) they are imported by the person to whom the relevant authorisation was granted or by another person with his written consent and such consent is produced to the competent authority with the relevant entry at the time of importation, and

( b ) the conditions specified in the authorisation are complied with.

13. The competent authority may, if they consider that the circumstances so warrant, amend, vary or revoke the conditions specified in—

( a ) any authorisation granted by them under these Regulations,

( b ) any authorisation granted in another member State, where such amendment, variation or revocation, as the case may be, is necessary to enable the relevant compensating products to qualify for relief under these Regulations.

14. These Regulations, so far as they relate to duties of customs and to the management of those duties, shall be construed together with the Customs Acts and any instrument relating to the customs made under statute.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 30th day of June, 1977.

RICHIE RYAN,

Minister for Finance.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These Regulations, which come into operation on 1 July, 1977, implement at national level Community Directives 76/119/EEC, 76/447/EEC and 76/527/EEC which provide for relief from import duties on goods which are in free circulation in the Community, or held there under an inward processing arrangement, and are exported outside the customs territory of the Community from any member State with a view to their being processed or repaired and subsequently reimported.

These Regulations also make provision, as required in the Directives, for a similar relief in the remaining instances where import duties will apply between the State and any other member State after 1 July, 1977, and the processing or repair takes place within the Community.

The Regulations set out how the relief referred to should be calculated.

The provisions in these Regulations replace those in Section 28, Finance Act, 1935 in relation to import duties on goods reimported after process abroad; but the provisions of Section 28 will continue to apply to the charge of excise duty and value-added tax on imported goods and to goods exported from the State on or before 30 June, 1977, and reimported on or before 30 June, 1978.