and from increasing such duties or charges as they apply in their commercial relations with each other.
Article 13
1. Customs duties on importation in force between Member States shall be progressively abolished by them in the course of the transitional period under the conditions laid down in Articles 14 and 15. 2. Charges in force between Member States having an effect equivalent to customs duties on importation shall be progressively abolished by them in the course of the transitional period. The Commission shall, by means of directives, fix the timing of such abolition. It shall be guided by the rules mentioned in Article 14, paragraphs 2 and 3, and by the directives issued by the Council in application of the said paragraph 2.
Article 14
1. In respect of each product, the basic duty which shall be subject to the successive reductions shall be the duty applied on 1 January 1957.
2. The timing of the reductions shall be as follows :
- (a) in the course of the first stage, the first reduction shall be made one year after the date of the entry into force of this Treaty; the second reduction shall be made eighteen months later ; the third, at the end of the fourth year after the date of the entry into force of this Treaty;
- (b) in the course of the second stage, a reduction shall be made eighteen months after the beginning of that stage; a second reduction, eighteen months after the preceding one; a third reduction shall be made one year later; and
- (c) the reductions which still remain to be made shall be carried out in the course of the third stage; the Council, acting by means of a qualified majority vote on a proposal of the Commission, shall fix their timing by means of directives.
3. At the time of the first reduction, Member States shall, in respect of each product, bring into force as between themselves a duty equal to the basic duty less 10 per cent.
At the time of each subsequent reduction, each Member State shall reduce the total of the duties in such a way as to reduce by 10 per cent its total customs receipts as defined in paragraph 4, it being understood that the reduction in the case of each product shall be equal to at least 5 per cent of the basic duty. In respect of products, however, on which a duty of more than 30 per cent would still remain, each reduction shall be equal to not less than 10 per cent of the basic duty.
4. The total customs receipts of each Member State, referred to in paragraph 3, shall be calculated by multiplying by the basic duties the value of its imports coming from other Member States during the year 1958.
