Article 2

United Kingdom

The release for free circulation in the Community of the products referred to in Article 1 shall be subject to presentation of a surveillance document issued by the relevant authorities of a Member State.

The surveillance document referred to in paragraph 1 shall be issued automatically by the competent authorities in the Member States, without charge and for any quantities requested, within five working days of presentation of an application by any Community importer, wherever it may be established in the Community. This application shall be deemed to have been received by the competent national authority no later than three working days after submission, unless it is proven otherwise.

A surveillance document issued by one of the authorities listed in Annex II shall be valid throughout the Community.

The surveillance document shall be made out on a form corresponding to the model at Annex I of Regulation (EC) No 3285/94^f1 on common rules for imports or in Annex IV to Regulation (EC) No 519/94 on common rules for imports from certain third countries. The importer's application shall include the following elements:

(a)

the name and full address of the applicant (including telephone and fax numbers, and possible identification number used by the competent national authorities) and VAT registration number, if subject to VAT;

(b)

if applicable, the name and full address of the declarant or representative of the applicant (including telephone and fax numbers);

(c)

the full name and address of the exporter;

(d)

the exact description of the goods, including:

their trade name,
the combined nomenclature (CN) code(s),
the country of origin,
the country of consignment;

(e)

the net weight expressed in kg, and the quantity in the unit prescribed where other than net weight, by combined nomenclature heading;

(f)

the cif value of the goods in euro at the Community frontier by combined nomenclature heading;

(g)

whether the products concerned are seconds or of substandard quality^f2;

(h)

the proposed period and place of customs clearance;

(i)

whether the application is a repeat of a previous application concerning the same contract;

(j)

the following declaration, dated and signed by the applicant with the transcription of his name in capital letters:

‘I, the undersigned, certify that the information provided in this application is true and given in good faith, and that I am established in the Community.’

The importer shall also submit a copy of the contract of sale or purchase and of the pro forma invoice. If so requested, for example in cases where the goods are not directly purchased in the country of production, the importer shall present a certificate of production issued by the producing steel mill.

Surveillance documents may be used only for such time as arrangements for liberalisation of imports remain in force in respect of the transactions concerned. Without prejudice to possible changes in the import regulations in force or decisions taken in the framework of an agreement or the management of a quota:

the period of validity of the surveillance document is hereby fixed at four months,
unused or partly used surveillance documents may be renewed for an equal period.

The importer shall return surveillance documents to the issuing authority at the end of their period of validity.

The competent authorities may allow the submission of declarations or requests to be transmitted or printed by electronic means, under the conditions fixed by them. However, all documents and evidence must be available to the competent authorities.

The surveillance document may be issued by electronic means as long as the customs offices involved have access to the document via a computer network.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: As modified by Council Regulation (EC) 139/96 of 22 January 1996 (OJ L 21, 27.7.1996, p. 7), and taking into account the provisions of Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1103/97 of 17 June 1997 on certain provisions relating to the introduction of the euro (OJ L 162, 19.6.1997, p. 1).
f2: Under the criteria given in OJ C 180, 11.7.1991, p. 4.