Proposal for a Council Regulation on the suspension of customs duties applicable to imports of certain heavy oils and other similar products

The purpose of the present proposal for a Council Regulation is the suspension of the autonomous common customs tariff duties on certain goods contained in Chapter 27 (heavy oils), which are currently classified under CN code 2707 99 99.

According to Note 2 to Chapter 27, oils in which the weight of non-aromatic constituents exceeds that of the aromatic fall under heading 2710, thus the products enjoy duty exemption. However, oils in which the weight of aromatic constituents exceeds that of non-aromatic are to be classified since April 2013 under heading 2707 (CN 2707 99 9) and are, thus, subject to a duty rate of 1.7%.

The technical characteristics of the products concerned are listed in the Explanatory Notes to the Combined Nomenclature of subheadings 2707 99 91 and 2707 99 99; those notes were amended in April 2013 in order to clarify the scope of the products covered by heading 2710 and to remove a contradiction between the Explanatory Notes to the Combined Nomenclature and Note 2 to Chapter 27. Therefore, such oils are classified under different subheadings because of the proportion of aromatic constituents they contain and, consequently, obtain different tariff treatment. As a consequence, those oils were subject to a duty of 1.7% since April 2013.

However, in the interest of the economic operators, both such oils, independently of their aromatic content, when they are intended to undergo a 'specific process' as defined in the Additional Note 5 to Chapter 27 (vaccuum distillation, cracking, reforming etc.) and subject to end-use procedure laid down in Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93, should autonomously be exempted from customs duty, provided the process has taken place. It also has to be noted that, since 1 July 2014, a temporary suspension of the autonomous common customs tariff duties for these products has been granted by Council Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 of 17 December 2013.

Hence, this draft aims at proposing the same tariff treatment for the same categories of products, independently of their respective classification at the date of the publication of the above mentioned Explanatory Note to the Combined Nomenclature, in order to provide a fair treatment for all economic operators and to avoid a gap in the duty free treatment of such products which they have enjoyed since 1968.

The attached proposal is considered to be a balanced approach taking into account the legal context and the interests of the different stakeholders, as it provides, without any interruption, the same tariff treatment over the period.

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)38: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:038:FIN

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