Citation, commencement and interpretation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Customs and Excise (Transit) Regulations 1993 and shall come into force on 23rd June 1993.

2. In these Regulations-

• "Consignment Note CIM" and "TR transfer note"-

  (a)

  in relation to Community transit, have the same meanings as in Articles 72 and 86 respectively of Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1214/92(3);

  (b)

  in relation to common transit, have the same meanings as in Articles 72 and 86 respectively of Appendix II to the Convention(4);

• "the Convention" means the Convention of 20th May 1987 on a common transit procedure entered into by the Economic Community, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Swiss Confederation(5);

• "the customs and excise Acts" has the same meaning as in section 1 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979(6);

• "relevant Community provision" means-

  (a)

  in relation to Community transit, any provision of a Community Regulation specified in the first, second or third columns of the Schedule to these Regulations and shall include any such provisions as applied by-

  (i)

  Article 37(3) of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2726/90(7);

  (ii)

  Articles 81(1) and 96(1) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1214/92;

  (b)

  in relation to common transit, any provision of the Convention specified in the fourth or fifth columns of the Schedule to these Regulations and shall include any such provisions as applied by-

  (i)

  Article 37(3) of Appendix I(8) to the Convention;

  (ii)

  Articles 81(1) and 96(1) of Appendix II to the Convention.

Offences, penalty and forfeiture

3. In the event of any contravention or failure to comply with-

(a)any relevant Community provision, or

(b)any requirement or condition imposed by or under any such provision,

person then in charge of the goods shall each be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of level 5 on the standard scale(9) and any goods in respect of which the offence was committed shall be liable to forfeiture.

Supplementary

4.-(1) Section 139 of and Schedule 3 to the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979(10) (detention, seizure and condemnation of goods) shall apply to any goods liable to forfeiture under regulation 3 above as if the goods were liable to forfeiture under the customs and excise Acts.

(2) Sections 144 to 148 and 150 to 155 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979(11) (proceedings for offences, mitigation of penalties, proof and other matters) shall apply in relation to offences and penalties under regulation 3 above and proceedings for such offences or for condemnation of anything as being forfeited under that regulation as they apply in relation to offences and penalties and proceedings for offences or for condemnation under the customs and excise Acts.

Revocation

5.-(1) The Customs and Excise (Community Transit) (No. 2) Regulations 1987(12) and the Customs and Excise (Common Transit) Regulations 1988(13) are hereby revoked.

(2) Notwithstanding their revocation, the Regulations mentioned in paragraph 1 of this regulation shall continue to have effect-

(a)until 1st July 1993, to the extent that they create offences for the contravention of Articles 35 and 37 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1062/87(14) and Articles 35 and 37 of the Convention in the application of those Articles to the carriage of goods under cover of an International Express Parcels Consignment Note;

(b)in relation to carriage begun, in accordance with the provisions of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 222/77(15) and Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1062/87, on or before 31st December 1992.

Regulation 2

SCHEDULERELEVANT COMMUNITY PROVISIONS

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The making of these Regulations is consequent on amendment to EC Regulations dealing with Community transit and the EEC-EFTA Convention on common transit. Penalties and forfeiture are created for contravention of these procedures. These two transit procedures have hitherto been dealt with in separate statutory instruments: the Customs and Excise (Community Transit) (No. 2) Regulations 1987(20) and the Customs and Excise (Common Transit) Regulations 1988(21), both revoked by these Regulations. The penalty, proceedings and forfeiture procedure are governed by the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.

The Schedules to the 1987 and 1988 Regulations are replaced by the Schedule to these Regulations to take account of:-

the repeal of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 222/77(22) and its replacement by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2726/90(23) ;

the repeal of Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1062/87(24) and its replacement by Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1214/92(25) ;

the repeal of Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 2823/87(26) and its replacement by Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 3566/92(27) ;

the substitution of new Appendices(28) to the EEC-EFTA Convention governing common transit procedure(29) .

Regulation 5 reflects the arrangements which have been made to deal with the transition from the procedures governed by the replaced EC Regulations and Convention Appendices.