Commercial Information Circulars

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e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 230/3

30 December 2013

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 1059/2013

European Union (EU) * : Temporary Tariff Suspension for Certain Agricultural and Industrial Products

Further to the Commercial Information Circular No. 519/2013 of 2 July 2013, the Council of the EU (the Council) has adopted a regulation (the "Regulation") repealing the existing suspension regulation and replacing it with a new one under which import tariffs of certain agricultural and industrial products will be partially or totally suspended. The Regulation can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:354:0201:0318:EN:PDF.

DETAILS

2.Temporary tariff suspension applies to products of which the Union production is currently inadequate or non-existent and thus, the needs of user industries in the Union cannot be met. Products for which tariff duties are temporarily suspended can be imported into the Union at reduced or zero rate.

3.The Council has amended the existing regulation on temporary suspension of tariff duties many times, and considers that it should be replaced in its entirety in the interest of transparency. It is considered appropriate not to limit the period of validity of the Regulation, as its scope can be adapted and products added to or removed from the list at Annex I to the Regulation. In view of their temporary nature, the suspensions listed in Annex I to the Regulation shall be reviewed systematically in the year set out in the list. Besides, it is considered necessary to provide that the relevant supplementary units for the imports of the products concerned are also entered in the declaration for release for free circulation.

4.Details of the suspensions including CN and TARIC codes, product descriptions, rates of autonomous duty, the dates foreseen for mandatory review and the relevant supplementary units are set out in Annexes I & II of the Regulation which shall apply from 1 January 2014.

ENQUIRIES

5.For enquiries concerning the contents of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5684.

Yours faithfully,

(Miss Stella CHAN)

for Director-General of Trade and Industry

*The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.