What is Decree No. 59 / 1948 Coll.?

Decree No 59 / 1948 of 30 October 1947 on the provisional application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade — Order imposing provisional application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 30 October 1947.

When it became Decree No. 59 / 1948 Coll. effectiveness?

Decree No. 59 / 1948 Coll. became effective 20.04.1948.

Is Decree No. 59 / 1948 Coll. still valid?

Yes, Decree No. 59 / 1948 Coll. is still valid and effective.

Decree No. 59 / 1948 Coll. - Order imposing provisional application o...

59.

Government Decree

of 8 April 1948

providing for the provisional application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 30 October 1947.

Pursuant to Article 1 of the Act of 4 July 1923, No 158 Coll., on the provisional treatment of trade relations with foreign countries, and Article VII of the Act of 22 June 1926, No 109 Coll., which partially amends the Customs Tariff Act for Czechoslovak customs territories and the Customs Tariff and issues provisions concerning trade relations with foreign countries, I declare:

According to the Government of the Czechoslovak Republic Resolution of 12 March 1948 and with the agreement of the President of the Republic, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, as verified by the signature of the Final Act in Geneva on 30 October 1947, shall be entered into force on the 30th day following the signature of the Protocol on the provisional application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade by the Czechoslovak Representative, within the meaning of the provisions of that Protocol.

The General Agreement was negotiated in the English and French languages and consists of a framework section and twenty schedule of the tariff contracts, marked I to XX. The original texts in both languages were published in four volumes by the United Nations and published in Lake Success, New York. Czech translations of lists I to XX will be published by the State Printer in Prague.

The Annex to this Government Order shall be published in the original version of both English and French and in the Czech translation of the Framework Part of the General Agreement, Final Act and Protocol on the provisional application of the General Agreement, and in the original version of the English and Czech translation of the X-form containing the conventional duty rates agreed for imports into Czechoslovakia.

This General Agreement and the provisions of the Charter X will enter into provisional effect on 20 April 1948 with respect to all States which signed the abovementioned Final Act. In view of the bilateral trade agreements in force of the Czechoslovak Republic with other countries, this General Agreement (including its X-form) will also be applied to those States to the extent that it results from the most favourable mutual clause with which the State negotiated.

Gottwald v. r.

(Translation)

Final act

the second meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment.

In agreement with the resolution adopted at the first meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment, established by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations on 18 February 1946,

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN REPUBLIC, THE KINGDOM OF THE BELGIUM, THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL, BURMY, CEYLON, THE REPUBLIC OF CZECH, THE REPUBLIC OF LUCEMBOURG, THE REPUBLIC OF FRENCH, THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE, INDIA, THE SOUTH AFRICAN UNION, THE CANADA, THE REPUBLIC OF CUDIUM, THE REPUBLIC OF LIBANON, THE REPUBLIC OF LUXEMBOURG, THE REPUBLIC OF THE NETHERLANDS, THE KINGDOM OF NORWAY, THE NEW ZELANDS, THE PAKISTAN, THE SOUTHERN RHOSE, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS OF AMERICS,

start negotiations, through their representatives in Geneva on 10 April 1947, to significantly reduce customs duties and other barriers to trade and to exclude preferences on the basis of reciprocity and mutual benefits. These negotiations ended today and resulted in the establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Protocol on Provisional Efficiency annexed to this Act. These texts become authentic by this Act.

The signing of this Final Act or of the Protocol on provisional application by any of those governments does not in any way predictate its freedom to negotiate at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment.

This Final Act, including the text of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Protocol on Provisional Efficiency, shall be published by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 18 November 1947, if the Protocol on Provisional Efficiency is signed by 15 November 1947 for all countries designated therein.

IN THE WORLD, the representatives of the aforementioned governments have signed this Act.

DONE in Geneva in a single specimen in English and French, both of which are authentic, on the 30th of October in the year one thousand and ninety-seven.

For the state of Australia:

C.E. MORTON

For the Kingdom of Belgium:

P. A. FORTHOMME

For the United States of Brazil:

A. DE FERREIRA BRAGA

For Burma:

MAUNG NYUN

For Canada:

L. D. WILGRESS

For Ceylon:

J. COREA

For the Republic of Chile:

A. FAIVOVICH

For the Republic of China

WUNSZ KING

For the Republic of Cuba:

SERGIO I. CLARK

For the Republic of Czechoslovakia:

Z. AUGENTHALER

For the Republic of France:

PIERRE BARADUC

For India:

S. Ranganathan

For Lebanon:

J. MIKAOUI

For the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg:

J. STURM

For the Kingdom of the Netherlands:

A. B. SPEEKENBRINK

For New Zealand:

J. P. D. JONNSEN

For the Kingdom of Norway:

ERIC COLBAN

For Pakistan:

H. I. RAHIMTOOLA

For Southern Rhodesia:

K. M. GOODENOUGH

For Syria:

H. JABBARA

For South Africa:

W.G.W. PARMINTER

For the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:

T.M. Snow

For the United States of America:

WINTHROP BROWN

(Translation)

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Governments of the States of Australia, the Kingdom of Belgium, the United States of Brazil, Burma, Ceylon, the Republic of Czechoslovakia, the Republic of China, the Republic of France, the Republic of Chile, India, South Africa, Canada, the Republic of Cuba, Lebanon, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Norway, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Rhodesia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and Syria,

Recognising that their trade and economic relations are intended to raise the standard of living, to ensure full employment and to ensure a comprehensive and ever-increasing real income and effective demand, to develop the full use of world resources and to expand the production and exchange of goods,

in order to contribute to the achievement of these objectives by concluding reciprocal and mutually advantageous agreements aimed at significantly reducing customs duties and other barriers to trade and eliminating discrimination in international trade,

agree through their representatives as follows:

The GPA.

1. With regard to customs duties and any levies imposed on importation or export, or in connection with import or export, or on international transfers of import and export salaries, as well as the way in which such duties and levies are collected, in respect of import or export-related rules and formalities, and in respect of all matters referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article III, any advantage, priority, privilege or exemption granted by any Contracting Party to any product originating in or intended for any country shall be granted immediately and unconditionally to the same product originating in or destined for the territory of all other Contracting Parties.

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall not require the elimination of preferences in the field of import duties or levies if they do not exceed the limits laid down in paragraph 3 of this Article and where:

(a) preferences which are valid exclusively between two or more territories listed in Annex A under the conditions laid down therein;

(b) preferences which are in force exclusively between two or more territories which on 1 July 1939 were linked by common sovereignty or by relations between protection or suzerenity and are listed in Annexes B, C and D, under the conditions laid down therein;

(c) preferences which are in force exclusively between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba;

(d) preferences which are valid exclusively between neighbouring countries listed in Annexes E and F.

3. Where the relevant instrument annexed to this Agreement does not explicitly provide for a maximum preferential margin, the preferential margin for any product for which preferences are permitted under paragraph 2 of this Article shall not exceed:

(a) for customs duties or levies on any of the products listed in the relevant instrument, the difference between the rate for States enjoying the most favoured nation clauses and the preferential rate; where no preferential rate is fixed, the preferential rate in respect of this paragraph shall be taken as the rate in force on 10 April 1947 and where no rate is fixed for the States enjoying the most favoured-nation clauses, the margin shall not exceed the difference between the rates in force for the States enjoying the most favoured-nation clauses and the preferential rates on 10 April 1947;

(b) for customs duties or levies on any product not listed in the relevant instrument, the difference between the rates applicable to the States enjoying the most-favoured-nation clauses and the preferential rates on 10 April 1947.

If the Contracting Parties listed in Annex G are concerned, the date of 10 April 1947 referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this paragraph shall be replaced by the relevant dates set out in that Annex.

Customs concessions.

1. (a) Each Contracting Party shall provide the trade of the other Contracting Parties with a treatment not less favourable than that provided for in the relevant part of the relevant instrument annexed to this Agreement.

(b) The products listed in Part I of the Charter relating to any Contracting Party which are products of the territory of the other Contracting Parties, if they comply with the conditions and characteristics laid down in that Charter, will not be subject to a customs duty higher than that laid down in that Charter when imported into the territory to which the Charter applies. Nor will such products be subject to other levies and charges of any kind, levied on or in connection with imports, which would be higher than those imposed on these products on the date of signature of this Agreement, or which would be higher than those imposed as a direct and binding consequence of the legislation in force in the territory of the importing country on that date.

(c) The products referred to in Part II of the Charter relating to the Contracting Parties which are products of the territory authorised under Article I to benefit from preferential treatment on importation into the territory to which the Charter applies shall not be subject, on importation into such territory if they comply with the conditions and characteristics laid down in that Charter, to customs duties in their own sense higher than those laid down in Part II of that Charter. Nor will such products be subject to other levies and charges of any kind, levied on or in connection with imports, which would be higher than those imposed on these products on the date of signature of this Agreement, or which would be higher than those imposed as a direct and binding consequence of the legislation in force in the territory of the importing country on that date. Nothing in this Article shall prevent Contracting Parties from maintaining the provisions in force on the date of signature of this Agreement governing the conditions under which products may benefit from preferential treatment.

2. Nothing in this Article shall prevent Contracting Parties from choosing at any time on import of any product:

(a) a levy equivalent to the internal tax imposed in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of Article III on the same domestic product or goods from which the imported product has been wholly or partly manufactured or manufactured:

(b) the anti-dumping or countervailing duties imposed in accordance with the provisions of Article VI;

(c) fees or other benefits which are proportionate to the cost of the services provided.

3. No Contracting Party shall change its method of determining the customs value of goods or the way in which foreign currencies are recalculated in such a way as to invalidate any of the customs discounts provided for in the relevant instrument annexed to this Agreement.

4. Where a Contracting Party establishes, maintains or permits the establishment, on an average basis, of an import monopoly of any product listed in the relevant instrument annexed to this Agreement, the effects of such a monopoly shall not be higher than that provided for in the relevant instrument, unless otherwise provided for in that instrument or otherwise agreed by the parties which initially agreed on customs discounts. The provisions of this paragraph shall not restrict Contracting Parties to provide any kind of assistance to domestic producers permitted under other provisions of this Agreement.

5. If a Contracting Party considers that the other Contracting Party does not treat a product in the same way as the first Contracting Party considers that it was intended to make a concession provided for in the relevant instrument annexed to this Agreement, it shall intervene directly with the other Contracting Party. If that Contracting Party considers that the treatment requested by the first Contracting Party is the same as that intended but declares that it cannot provide it, because the court or other competent authority has decided that the product concerned cannot be classified under the customs legislation of that Contracting Party in such a way as to be covered by the treatment envisaged by this Agreement, the two Contracting Parties, together with any other Contracting Party having a substantial interest, shall immediately renegotiate with a view to compensating the case.

6. (a) The specific duties and levies listed in the instruments applicable to those Contracting Parties which are members of the International Monetary Fund and the preferential margins of the specific duties and levies maintained by those Contracting Parties shall be expressed in the respective currency of those Parties at the parity value as accepted or recognised by the Fund at the date of this Agreement. Where such parity is reduced by more than twenty per cent in agreement with the articles of the International Monetary Fund Agreement, such specific duties, levies and preferential margins may be adjusted to reflect such reductions, provided that the Contracting Parties (i.e. Contracting Parties acting jointly in accordance with the provisions of Article XXV) agree that such arrangements will not reduce the value of the customs discounts provided for in the relevant instrument or at any other point in the Agreement, taking into account any circumstances which may affect the need or need for such adjustment.

(b) These provisions will be applied mutatis mutandis to a Contracting Party which is not a member of the Fund from the date on which it becomes a member of the Fund or when it enters into a special monetary agreement in accordance with Article XV.

7. The instruments annexed to this Agreement shall form an integral part of Part I of this Agreement.

The same treatment in internal taxes and adjustments.

1. Products of the territory of any Contracting Party imported into the territory of any other Contracting Party shall be free of internal taxes and other internal levies of any kind higher than those to which they are subject directly or indirectly to the same products of domestic origin. In addition, in cases where there is no substantial domestic production of the same products of domestic origin, no Contracting Party shall impose new or higher internal taxes on products of the territory of the other Contracting Parties in order to provide protection for the production of goods which are directly competing with them or which may replace them, unless similarly taxed; existing internal taxes of this kind will be the subject of negotiations to reduce or eliminate them.

2. The products of the territory of any Contracting Party imported into the territory of any other Contracting Party shall be granted no less favourable than those of domestic origin, in respect of all laws, regulations and provisions relating to their sale, offering for sale, purchase, transport, distribution or use on the internal market. The provisions of this paragraph shall not preclude the application of different transport rates based solely on the economic use of means of transport and not on the origin of the products.

3. When applying the principles of paragraph 2 of this Article to internal quantitative provisions relating to the mixing, processing or use of products in a certain quantity or proportion, the Contracting Parties shall maintain the following provisions:

(a) do not introduce adjustments which would formally or in fact require certain quantities or a proportion of the products covered by such adjustments to be of domestic origin;

(b) no Contracting Party will formally or effectively restrict the mixing, processing or use of a product whose domestic production is not significant in order to provide protection to the domestic product directly with or capable of replacing it.

4. The provisions of paragraph 3 of this Article shall not apply to:

(a) any measure of internal quantitative control in force in the territory of any Contracting Party on 1 July 1939 or 10 April 1947 at the choice of the Contracting Party concerned, provided that any such measure which would be contrary to the provisions of paragraph 3 of this Article is not altered at the expense of imports and that it is subject to negotiations on its restriction, release or elimination;

(b) any internal quantitative adjustment concerning illuminated cinematographic films and satisfying the requirements of Article IV.

5. The provisions of this Article shall not apply to the procurement of products by public hand or on its behalf which are intended for government purposes and not for resale or for use in the manufacture of goods, for sale or for sale, nor shall they prevent the payment of only to domestic producers of the aid referred to in Article XVI, including aid to domestic producers from the proceeds of internal taxes and levies and aid granted in the form of government purchases of domestic products.

Special provisions on cinematographic films.

Where a Contracting Party introduces or maintains internal quantitative adaptations relating to illuminated cinematographic films, such modifications shall take the form of projecting contenders meeting the following requirements:

(a) projection contenders may require the projection of cinematographic films of domestic origin during a minimum part of the total projection period actually used in a given period of no less than one year for commercial demonstration of all films of any origin. These continents will be determined on the basis of the projection time for the biographer per year or its equivalent.

(b) With the exception of the projection period reserved in the projection contingent for films of domestic origin, no projection period or such period as would be released by administrative measures from the projection period reserved for films of domestic origin will be formally or effectively allocated to any source of supply.

(c) In spite of the provisions of subparagraph (b) of this Article, any Contracting Party may maintain projecting contenders complying with the requirements of subparagraph (a) of this Article which reserve the minimum part of the projection period for films of other origin than the Contracting Parties determining such projecting contenders, provided that such minimum part of the projection period is not increased beyond that on 10 April 1947.

(d) Projection contenders will be the subject of negotiations on their limitation, release or elimination.

Freedom of passage.

1. Goods (including baggage) as well as vessels and other means of transport shall be considered to be accompanied by the territory of a Contracting Party when their transport through that territory, whether or not with or without storage, whether or not with or without unloading or reloading, or whether or not the mode of transport has been changed, is only a section of the entire journey starting and ending outside the borders of the Contracting Party whose territory is being transported. Transport of this kind is called "transit transport" in this article.

2. Freedom of transit for transit to or from the territory of another Contracting Party shall be ensured on the routes most suitable for international transit. There will be no difference according to the flag of the vessels, the place of origin, dispatch, entry, exit or destination of the goods or the ownership of goods, vessels or other means of transport.

3. Each Contracting Party may require that carriage of goods through its territory be declared to the competent customs office, but - except where the customs laws and regulations in force are not maintained - such transport, coming from or going to the territories of other Contracting Parties, shall not be subject to unnecessary delays or restrictions and shall be exempt from customs duties and all customs duties or other charges imposed in connection with transit, except for transport or charges commensurate with administrative costs caused by transit or proportional costs of services rendered.

4. All charges and regulations of the Contracting Parties relating to transit to or from the territory of the other Contracting Parties shall be proportionate to the transport conditions.

5. Each Contracting Party shall treat, with transit to or from the territory of any other Contracting Party, all fees, regulations and formalities associated with transit as no less favourable than transit to or from any third country.

6. Each Contracting Party shall treat products which have been carried out by the territory of another Contracting Party as equally favourably as if they had been transported from their place of origin to their destination without passing through the territory of that other Contracting Party. However, each Contracting Party may maintain its requirements of direct transport in force on the date of signature of this Agreement in respect of any goods for which direct transport is a condition for discussion at preferential rates of customs duty or has an effect on the method of determining the value prescribed by this Contracting Party for the purposes of customs clearance.

7. The provisions of this Article shall not apply to aircraft in transit but to the air transit of goods (including baggage).

Anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

1. No anti-dumping duty on any product of the territory of any Contracting Party imported into the territory of any other Contracting Party shall be collected at an amount higher than the dumping margin on the imported product. For the purposes of this Article, the dumping margin shall be the amount by which the price of the product exported from one country to another:

(a) lower than the comparable price of the same product required under normal commercial conditions for its destination for consumption in the exporting country; or

(b) if such domestic prices are not lower than either:

(i) the highest comparable price of the same product when exported to any third country under normal commercial conditions, or

(ii) the cost of production of this product in the country of origin, plus a reasonable premium for sales expenses and profit

In individual cases, due account should be taken of differences in terms of terms and manner of sale, differences in taxation and other differences affecting price comparability.

2. No countervailing duty shall be levied on any product of the territory of any Contracting Party imported into the territory of any other Contracting Party in excess of the estimated premium or aid which has been found to have been granted, directly or indirectly, for the manufacture, manufacture or export of such product in the country of origin or export, including any specific aid granted for the transport of that product. The term "countervailing duty 'means the specific duty levied to compensate for any premium or aid granted directly or indirectly for the manufacture, manufacture or export of any goods.

3. No product of the territory of any Contracting Party imported into the territory of any other Contracting Party shall be subject to an anti-dumping or countervailing duty because it has been exempted from taxes or levies imposed on the same product for consumption in the country of origin or export or because such taxes or levies have been refunded.

4. No product of the territory of any Contracting Party imported into the territory of any other Contracting Party shall be subject to both anti-dumping and countervailing duties in order to be faced with the same case of dumping or export aid.

5. No Contracting Party shall impose an anti-dumping or countervailing duty on imports of any product from the territory of any other Contracting Party unless it finds that the effect of dumping or aid in the present case is such as to cause or threaten to cause material injury to existing domestic production, or to prevent or significantly delay the construction of domestic products. THE CONTRACTING PARTIES may waive the conditions laid down in this paragraph and authorise a Contracting Party to impose an anti-dumping or countervailing duty on imports of any product to offset dumping or aid which acts or threatens to cause material injury to production in the territory of another Contracting Party, exporting the product concerned in the territory of the importing Party.

6. A system designed to stabilise domestic prices of a basic product or the gross yield resulting from domestic producers of such a product independently of the movement of export prices and which sometimes allows export sales of such a product at a price below the comparable price requested by buyers on the domestic market shall not be considered as a system which would cause material injury within the meaning of paragraph 5 of this Article if it is established by consultations between the parties having a significant interest in the product concerned,

(a) that, as a result of this scheme, the product was also sold for export at a price higher than the comparable price requested for the same product by buyers on the domestic market, and

(b) that, as a result of the effective adjustment of production or otherwise, the system operates in such a way that it does not encourage exports in an inappropriate way or otherwise does not seriously harm the interests of the other Contracting Parties.

7. No Contracting Party shall use measures other than anti-dumping or countervailing duties to offset dumping or aid against any product in the territory of another Contracting Party.

Detection of value for customs purposes.

1. The Contracting Parties shall recognise the validity of the general principles for the determination of value, as set out in the following paragraphs of this Article, and undertake to bring them into force as soon as possible for all products subject to customs duties or other levies or restrictions on imports and exports, based on, or in accordance with, the value adjusted in any way. In addition, at the request of another Contracting Party, they shall examine, within the meaning of these principles, the implementation of any of their laws or regulations relating to the detection of value for customs purposes. The Contracting Parties may request from the Contracting Parties reports on the measures they have taken to implement the provisions of this Article.

2. (a) The customs value of the imported goods is to be based on the actual value of the imported goods from which the customs duty is calculated or on the actual value of the same goods and is not to be based on the value of the goods of domestic origin or on any value or fictitious value.

(b) The "actual value" is to be the price at which such or the same goods are sold or offered for sale under conditions of unlimited competition at the time and place specified by the importing country and within the normal course of trade. Where, in a particular case, the price of such goods or the same goods is determined by their quantity, the price of the incoming goods shall be taken into account - at the choice of the importing country, made once and for all - either:

(i) comparable quantities, or

(ii) quantities which are not less favourable to importers than if the largest quantity of these goods were taken as a basis, such as actually sold in a trade between the exporting and import countries

(c) If the actual value cannot be ascertained in accordance with paragraph (b) of this paragraph, the customs value should be based on the nearest identifiable equivalent of such value.

3. The customs value of any imported product shall not include the amount of any internal tax in force in the country of origin or in the exporting country from which the imported product was exempted or which was or will be recovered.

4. (a) If, for the purposes of paragraph 2 of this Article, a Contracting Party has to transfer the price expressed in the currency of another country to its own currency, the conversion rate to be used shall be based on the parities of the currencies concerned, as laid down in the Articles of the International Monetary Fund Agreement or in specific payment agreements concluded pursuant to Article XV of this Agreement, unless otherwise provided for in this paragraph.

(b) If such parity has not been established, the conversion rate will correspond to the actual normal value of such a currency in commercial relations.

(c) THE CONTRACTING PARTIES shall, in an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, lay down the rules under which the Contracting Parties are to convert any foreign currency for which a multiple conversion rate is maintained in agreement with the Articles of the International Monetary Fund Agreement. Such rules may be applied by any Contracting Party to such foreign currencies for the purposes of paragraph 2 of this Article as alternatives to the use of parity values on the spot. Until such rules are laid down by the CONTRACTING PARTIES, each Contracting Party may apply to any such foreign currency for the purposes of paragraph 2 of this Article the conversion rules which are actually to express the value of that foreign currency in commercial relations.

(d) Nothing in this paragraph may be interpreted as requiring any Contracting Party to change the method of calculating currencies for customs purposes used in its territory on the date of signature of this Agreement if such a change would result in a general increase in the amount to be paid per unit.

5. The bases and methods of determining the value of products subject to customs duties and other levies or restrictions, based on or according to value, are to be stable and be published so that traders can estimate customs value with sufficient proximity.

Formalities on import and export.

1. The Contracting Parties recognise that fees and charges, other than customs duties, imposed by the authorities on importation or export or in connection with import or export, are to be limited to an amount corresponding to the approximate cost of the services provided and are not to be indirect protection of domestic products or taxation of imports or exports for fiscal purposes. The Contracting Parties shall also recognise the need to reduce the number and variety of such fees and levies, import and export burdens by complex formalities and to mitigate and simplify the requirements relating to paper documents on import and export.

2. The Parties shall take action as soon as possible in accordance with the principles and objectives of paragraph 1 of this Article. In addition, at the request of any other Contracting Party, they shall examine the implementation of any law or regulation in the light of these principles.

3. No Contracting Party shall impose strict penalties for minor infringements of customs legislation or customs procedures. In particular, it will not impose more severe penalties than those which are necessary as a mere warning if there is an omission or error in the documents presented to customs, which is easily reparable and is probably without fraudulent intent or gross negligence.

4. The provisions of this Article shall apply to fees, levies, formalities and requirements imposed by the authorities in connection with import or export, including those relating to:

(a) consular acts such as consular accounts or certificates;

(b) quantitative restrictions;

(c) the authorisation procedure;

(d) foreign exchange controls;

(e) statistical services;

(f) documents to be submitted, documentary evidence and certification;

(g) analyses and inspections;

(h) quarantine, health measures and disinfection.

Designation of origin.

1. Each Contracting Party shall treat the products of the territories of other Contracting Parties as having no less favourable treatment than the same products of any third country.

2. Whenever administratively feasible, the Contracting Parties shall allow the required designations of origin to be affixed at the time of import.

(3) The laws and regulations of the Contracting Parties relating to the labelling of imported products are to be such that they can be complied with without damaging the products, or without substantially reducing their value or unduly increasing their cost.

4. In principle, the Contracting Parties are not to impose special benefits or fines because the requirements of the marking have not been complied with before importation, unless the additional marking has been unduly postponed, or where the indication is not misled or the prescribed marking has not been deliberately omitted.

5. The Contracting Parties shall cooperate with each other in order to prevent the use of trade marks in a way which misleads the true origin of the product to the detriment of a circumstantial or geographical designation of products of a Party protected by its legislation. Each Contracting Party shall take full and concise account of requests or complaints submitted to it by any other Contracting Party, where appropriate, concerning the implementation of the undertaking provided for in the previous sentence regarding the designation of products notified to it by another Contracting Party.

Publication and implementation of trade legislation.

1. The laws, regulations, judicial decisions and administrative measures of general scope, brought into force by any Contracting Party in respect of the classification or detection of the value of products for customs purposes, or in respect of customs duties, taxes or other levies or regulations, restrictions or prohibitions concerning the import or export or transfer of payments for import or export, or in respect of the sale, distribution, transport, insurance, storage, inspection, exhibition, processing, mixing or other use of such products, shall be published immediately in such a way as to enable governments and traders to become familiar with them. Agreements concerning international trade policy which are in force between the Government or the Government of any Contracting Party and the Government or Government of any other Contracting Party shall also be published. The provisions of this paragraph shall not require any Contracting Party to provide confidential information which would make it difficult to implement legislation or otherwise be contrary to the public interest, or which would prejudice the legitimate commercial interests of individual undertakings, whether public or private.

2. Any measure of general scope taken by any Contracting Party which causes an increase in the customs duty or other import levy under applicable and uniform conditions, or to which the import or transfer of salaries for imports is burdened by a new or more severe requirement, restriction or prohibition, shall not be put into effect before it has been officially declared.

3. (a) Each Contracting Party shall implement in a uniform, impartial and proportionate manner all its laws, regulations, decisions and measures referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.

(b) Each Contracting Party shall maintain or establish as soon as possible judicial, arbitral or administrative stools or proceedings for the purpose of, inter alia, reviewing or correcting, without delay, administrative acts relating to customs matters. Such stools or proceedings shall be independent of the authorities responsible for administrative performance; their decisions shall be made by those authorities and shall be decisive for their administrative activities unless they are brought before the competent higher court or storehouse of appeal within the period of appeal prescribed for the importer, subject to the possibility that the central administration superior to that administrative authority may take measures to obtain an examination of the matter in further proceedings where it is reasonable to assume that the decision is contrary to the principles laid down by law or to the facts.

(c) The provisions of subparagraph (b) of this paragraph will not require that the procedure in force in the territory of a Contracting Party be removed or replaced on the date of signature of this Agreement, which actually provides for an objective and impartial review of administrative acts, even if such proceedings are not wholly or formally independent of the authorities responsible for administrative performance. Each Contracting Party making use of such a procedure shall, upon request, provide the CONTRACTING PARTIES with full information about it in order to determine whether such a procedure complies with the requirements laid down in this subparagraph.

General removal of quantitative restrictions.

1. No prohibitions or restrictions other than customs duties, taxes or other benefits, whether by contingent, import or export permits or otherwise, shall be introduced or maintained by any Contracting Party on import of any product by any other Contracting Party or on export or sale for export by any other Contracting Party.

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall not concern:

(a) export bans or restrictions temporarily used to prevent or eliminate a critical shortage of food or other products relevant to the exporting Party;

(b) import or export prohibitions or restrictions necessary for the application of standards or arrangements for sorting, evaluation or sale of goods in international trade;

Citation	Decree No 59 / 1948 of 30 October 1947 on the provisional application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
Regulation Type	-
Author	-
Collection	Code of Laws

Date of Promulgation	15.04.1948
Effective from	20.04.1948
Effective until	-
Status	Valid

Decree No. 59 / 1948 Coll.

Order imposing provisional application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 30 October 1947

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