Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1959 > Committee of Public Accounts > Report - Appropriation Accounts 1957 - 1958

APPENDIX VI.

CUSTOMS CO-OPERATION COUNCIL.

Cléireach,

An Coiste um Chuntais Phoiblí.

When I was being questioned by the Committee of Public Accounts on the 13th November, 1958, in connection with Subhead R. of the Appropriation Account for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners I undertook to furnish a note on the activities of the Customs Co-operation Council.

The Customs Co-operation Council is a technical body which was set up in Brussels in 1952 by members of O.E.E.C. including Ireland. The membership has increased since that year and it now numbers twenty-two countries of which some are non-European.

The principal object of the Council is to standardise and simplify customs technical procedures and documentation so as to assist the work of customs administrations and to facilitate international trade. It ensures the uniform interpretation and application of the technical Conventions and Recommendations under its care or adopted as a result of its work, including the Convention on the Valuation of Goods for Customs Purposes and the Convention on Nomenclature for the Classification of Goods in Customs Tariffs. The latter embodies the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature which is a standard classification of all goods entering into international trade and which is designed as a framework for the customs tariffs of participating countries. The Council studies customs technical procedures generally with a view to obtaining the highest possible degree of standardization and simplification. In this connection it has promoted uniform methods of dealing with customs operations of practical interest to merchants engaged in international trade; it has issued comparative studies on certain points of customs procedure of member countries with a view to improving efficiency generally and has sponsored measures for the repression of customs frauds.

The Revenue Commissioners send representatives to meetings of the Council and its committees as may be required.

The expenses of the Council, consisting mainly of the maintenance of a general secretariat at its headquarters in Brussels, are made up by contributions from the member countries. Ireland’s contribution is usually between 0.5% and 0.7% of the total.

The Council has issued four Bulletins giving details of its work and copies of these have been placed in the Oireachtas Library.

Office of the Revenue Commissioners.

17 December, 1958.