2. Member States shall, before the end of the first year after the entry into force of this Treaty, inform the Commission of their customs duties of a fiscal nature.
3. Member States shall retain the right to substitute for these duties an internal tax in accordance with the provisions of Article 95.
4. Where the Commission finds that in any Member State the substitution of such duty meets with serious difficulties, it shall authorise such State to retain the said duty provided that the State concerned shall abolish it not later than six years after the date of the entry into force of his Treaty. Such authorisation shall be requested before the end of the first year after the date of the entry into force of this Treaty.
Section 2
Establishment of the Common Customs Tariff
Article 18
Member States hereby declare their willingness to contribute to the development of international commerce and the reduction of barriers to trade by entering into reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements directed to the reduction of customs duties below the general level which they could claim as a result of the establishment of a customs union between themselves.
Article 19
1. Under the conditions and within the limits laid down below, the duties under the common customs tariff shall be at the level of the arithmetical average of the duties applied in the four customs territories covered by the Community. 2. The duties taken into account for calculating this average shall be those applied by Member States on 1 January 1957.
In the case of the Italian tariff, however, the duty applied shall be understood as being that levied before the temporary 10 per cent reduction. Furthermore, in the case of tariff headings in regard to which this tariff contains a conventional duty, this duty shall be substituted for the duty applied as defined above, provided that it does not exceed the latter by more than 10 per cent. If the conventional duty exceeds the applied duty as defined above by more than 10 per cent, the latter duty, increased by 10 per cent, shall be taken into account for calculating the arithmetical average.
With regard to the tariff headings contained in List A, the duties shown in that List shall, for the purpose of calculating the arithmetical average, be substituted for the duties applied.
3. The duties under the common customs tariff shall not exceed
- (a) 3 per cent in the case of products coming under the tariff headings mentioned in List B ;
