Import Duties (General) (No. 7) Order 1970

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
CitationSI 1970/1522
Year1970

1970 No. 1522

CUSTOMS AND EXCISE

The Import Duties (General) (No. 7) Order 1970

14thOctober 1970

4thNovember 1970

1stJanuary 1971

The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, by virtue of the powers conferred on them by sections 1, 2 and 13 of the Import Duties Act 1958(a), and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, on the recommendation of the Board of Trade hereby make the following Order:—

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Import Duties (General) (No. 7) Order 1970.

(2) The Interpretation Act 1889(b) shall apply for the interpretation of this Order as it applies for the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.

(3) Nothing in this Order shall be construed as affecting the operation of any instrument made under the Import Duties Act 1958 and not revoked by this Order, or as affecting any relief to which any person is or may become entitled under any provisions of that Act.

(4) This Order shall come into operation on 1st January 1971.

2.—(1) The form of customs tariff set out in column 1 of Schedule 1 to this Order (being the form prescribed by the Import Duties (General) (No. 3) Order 1969(c) as amended by subsequent Orders under the Import Duties Act 1958(d), and with other amendments required to give effect to the Geneva agreements, or consisting of the omission of unnecessary subheadings or other minor modifications, including modifications taking into account the introduction of decimal currency) may continue to be referred to as the Customs Tariff 1959 and to be used in classifying goods for customs purposes in cases where some other method is not required under any enactment.

In this paragraph "the Geneva agreements" means the agreements dated 30th June 1967(e) entered into at Geneva between Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the Governments of certain other countries and amending the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade concluded in Geneva in 1947(f).

(2) The form so set out shall be interpreted and applied in accordance with the interpretative rules preceding it in the said Schedule 1, but the Index of General Definitions etc. appended to those rules shall not be taken as part of that form or affect its interpretation.

(a) 1958 c. 6.

(b) 1889 c. 63.

(c) S.I. 1969/1413 (1969 III, p. 4150).

(d) See the Orders revoked by Art. 4 of this Order.

(e) Cmnd. 3347.

(f) Cmnd. 7258.

(3) Where goods are to be classified in accordance with that form and the classification depends on the rate of duty, then, unless the contrary intention appears, account shall be taken of all customs duties for the time being chargeable, other than duty under the Customs Duties (Dumping and Subsidies) Act 1969(a), and the classification shall be made by a comparison of the amounts chargeable on goods not qualifying for any preferential rate of duty.

3.—(1) Where in any heading or subheading of Schedule 1 to this Order a rate of duty is shown in column 2, then, on the importation into the United Kingdom of goods classified in that heading or subheading, there shall, subject to the following provisions of this Article, be charged an import duty at the rate so shown:

Provided that—

(a) no import duty shall be charged in the case of goods of the Republic of Ireland consigned to the United Kingdom from that country;

(b) in the case of goods qualifying for Commonwealth preference (not being goods falling within paragraph (a) above), no import duty shall be charged unless a rate is shown in column 3 prefixed by the letter "C" and, if a rate is so shown, import duty shall be charged at that rate;

(c) in the case of goods of Convention area origin within the meaning of the European Free Trade Association Act 1960(b), but subject to section 2 of that Act, no import duty shall be charged unless a rate is shown in the said column 3 prefixed by the letter "E" and, if a rate is so shown, import duty shall be charged at that rate; and

(d) where a heading or subheading limits a rate of duty to a specified period, or shows different rates for different periods, the duty shall be charged accordingly.

(2) Goods falling within both paragraph (b) and paragraph (c) of the proviso to paragraph (1) above shall, if less import duty would be chargeable if they were treated as falling solely within one of those paragraphs than if they were treated as falling solely within the other, be treated for the purposes of this Order as excluded from that other paragraph.

(3) Where—

(a) any import duty is by this Order expressed to be chargeable on goods of any description, and

(b) any goods of that description are chargeable with a revenue duty (not being a duty in addition to which the import duty is expressed to be chargeable) but those goods are not exempt from import duties,

then import duty shall be charged on those goods at a rate less by the amount of any such revenue duty chargeable on them than the rate at which the import duty is expressed to be chargeable or, if that amount is equal to or greater than the duty at the last-mentioned rate, shall not be charged on those goods.

(4) Any reference in Schedule 1 to this Order to a percentage, in relation to a rate of duty, is a reference to a percentage of the value of the goods; and the expression "full rate", where used in column 3 of that Schedule in relation to goods of any description, means the rate shown for goods of that description in column 2.

(a) 1969 c. 16.

(b) 1960 c. 19.

(5) In ascertaining the rate of duty chargeable in respect of any goods—

(a) until the end of 14th February 1971 (the day before the appointed day for the purposes of the Decimal Currency Act 1969(a)) there shall be disregarded so much of any entry in Schedule 1 to this Order as consists in a sum of money shown in square brackets; and

(b) on and after 15th February 1971 there shall be disregarded so much of any entry so specified as consists in a sum of money (other than a whole number of pounds) not shown in square brackets.

(6) In this Article, and in Schedule 1 to this Order, "revenue duty" means a duty of customs chargeable under any enactment other than the Import Duties Act 1958 and the Customs Duties (Dumping and Subsidies) Act 1969.

4. The Import Duties (General) Orders specified in Schedule 2 to this Order are hereby revoked.

David Howell, Bernard Weatherill, Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury.

14th October 1970.

(a) 1969 c. 19.

SCHEDULE 1

FORM OF CUSTOMS TARIFF, AND RATES OF IMPORT DUTY

[For list of section and chapter titles, see end of Schedule.]

INTERPRETATIVE RULES

1. The titles of Sections, Chapters and sub-Chapters are provided for case of reference only; for legal purposes, classification (as between headings) shall be determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative Section or Chapter notes and, provided such headings or notes do not otherwise require, according to Rules 2 to 5 below.

2. Any reference in a heading to a material or substance shall be taken to include a reference to mixtures or combinations of that material or substance with other materials or substances. Any reference to goods of a given material or substance shall be taken to include a reference to goods consisting wholly or partly of such material or substance. The classification of goods consisting of more than one material or substance shall be according to the principles of Rule 3.

3. When for any reason, goods are, prima facie, classifiable under two or more headings, classification shall be effected as follows:

(a) The heading which provides the most specific description shall be preferred to headings providing a more general description (subheadings being disregarded).

(b) Mixtures and composite goods which consist of different materials or are made up of different components and which cannot be classified by reference to (a) shall be classified as if they consisted of the material or component which gives the goods their essential character, in so far as this criterion is applicable.

(c) When goods cannot be classified by reference to (a) or (b), they shall be classified under the heading which involves the highest rate of duty.

4. Where in a note to a Section or Chapter it is provided that certain goods are not covered by that Section or Chapter, a reference being made parenthetically to another Section or Chapter or to a particular heading, the note shall, except in so far as the context requires otherwise, be taken to refer to all the goods falling within that other Section or Chapter or heading notwithstanding that only certain of those goods are referred to by description in the note.

5. Goods not falling within any heading of the Schedule shall be classified under the heading appropriate to the goods to which they are most akin.

6. Except as provided in a note to a Section or Chapter expressed to be a special note applying to subheadings only, the classification of goods within a heading is to be determined by applying as between subheadings the like Rules as are to be applied between headings, and, except in so far as the contrary intention appears, terms used in a subheading are to be interpreted in the same way as in the heading.

Index of General Definitions etc.

 Phrase or matter Defined or explained in
                 1. Alloys (how classified in Section XIV and XV) Chapter 71, Note 5
                 Section XV, Note 3
                 2. Artificial fur Chapter 43, Note 4
                 3. Base metal Section XV, Notes 4, 5
                 and 7
                 4. Composition leather Chapter 41, Note 2
                 5. Embroidery Chapter 58, Note 5
                 6. Fine animal hair Note to Chapter 53
                 7. Furskins Chapter 43, Note 1
                 8. Glass Chapter 70, Note 3
                 9. Horsehair Chapter 5, Note 4
                10. Hydrocarbon oils Chapter 27, Special Note
                11. Ivory Chapter 5, Note 3
                12. Light oils Chapter 27, Special Note
                13. Made up (used of textiles in Section XI) Section XI, Note 6
                14. Man-made fibres Chapter 51, Note 1
                15. Mixed textiles (how classified in Chapter 50 Section XI, Note 2
                 to 57)
                16. Parts of general use (of base metal) Section XV, Note 2
                17.
...

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