|
|
Association Agreement
-
How to benefit from
preferential duties - European exporters In order to benefit from the AA provisions,
namely preferential duties, the European
exporter should accompany the imported goods
with a EUR.1 certificate of origin or an invoice
declaration (if the value of the goods does not
exceed EUR 6,000 or the exporter is recognised
by the Customs of the exporting country as an
approved exporter). Articles 16 to 30 of
Protocol 4 of the AA give all details on how to
obtain these proofs of origin.
The EU-Egypt Association Agreement states that
EUR.1 certificates of origin or invoice
declarations should be accepted by Egyptian
customs as proofs of origin of products
originating in the EU following the verification
of the stamp used by the Member States customs
offices without any further legalisation by the
Egyptian Embassy or Consulate in the country of
origin. The provisions of the EU-Egypt
Association Agreement concerning the EUR.1
certificate have been transposed into Egyptian
law by Ministry of Finance Decree 1859/2004,
issued on 30.12.2004 and published in the
Official Journal No. 1 (Supplement) of
01.01.2005, Article 1, which states that “no
authentication of the certificates of origin and
the documents attached to them by the Egyptian
Embassies or Consulates abroad shall be required
concerning the goods imported within the
framework of the Egyptian European Partnership
Agreement”.
On May 8th 2005, the Delegation received an
official letter from the Ministry of Foreign
Trade and Industry assuring us that all Egyptian
Embassies and Consulates were notified with the
Decree and that it was implemented by all
entities.
If a European exporter (or its import agent in
Egypt) wants to know if its products are
currently benefiting from preferential
treatment, they should check first in which of
the Annexes and Protocols is the HS Code of the
product included. Currently, only Codes in Annex
II and Protocol 2 of the AA are obtaining a
customs duty reduction. New preferential duties
for European processed agricultural products
will enter into force as of 1.1.2006. According
to Protocol 3 of the AA, products listed in
Tables 1, 2 and 3 of Annex I to the said
Protocol should start to receive preferential
duties from 1.1.2006 onwards: customs duties
shall be abolished for products listed in Table
1, while for products listed in Table 2 and
Table 3 a 5% reduction on customs duties shall
apply. These tables include products such as
cocoa paste, animal fats and oils, yoghourt,
butter, margarine, tomato ketchup, soups, or
prepared vegetables.
The exporter can also access the Egyptian
Customs Website (only Arabic version available)
(
www.customs.gov.eg ) to check on a
product-by-product basis if their products are
currently benefiting form the AA. It is
advisable to check both the AA and the Customs
Website to be sure that the product is charged
with the correct custom duty.
A complete version of the AA can be obtained in
the following address:
http://www.eu-delegation-org.eg/en/eu_and_country/association.htm
|
