Council Decision (EU) 2022/2469 of 12 December 2022 on the position to be adopted on behalf of the European Union within the Committee on Customs established under the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Singapore, as regards the amendment of Protocol 1 concerning the definition of ‘originating products’ and methods of administrative cooperation

The position to be adopted on the Union’s behalf in the first meeting of the Committee on Customs shall be based on the draft Decision of the Committee on Customs attached to this Decision. Minor technical corrections to the draft Decision may be agreed by the representatives of the Union in the Committee on Customs.

This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption.

1 For the purposes of this Protocol: (a) “ASEAN country” means a member state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations which is not a Party to this Agreement; (b) “chapters” and “headings” and “sub-headings” mean the chapters, the headings (four digit codes) and sub-headings (six digit codes) used in the nomenclature which makes up the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, referred to in this Protocol as the “Harmonized System” or “HS”; (c) “classified” refers to the classification of a product or material under a particular chapter, heading, or sub-heading of the Harmonized System; (d) “consignment” means products which are either sent simultaneously from one consignor to one consignee or covered by a single transport document covering their shipment from the consignor to the consignee or, in the absence of such a document, by a single invoice; (e) “customs value” means the value as determined in accordance with the Customs Valuation Agreement; (f) “ex-works price” means the price paid for the product ex-works to the manufacturer in whose undertaking the last working or processing is carried out, provided that the price includes the value of all the materials used and all other costs related to its production, minus any internal taxes which are, or may be, repaid when the product obtained is exported. Where the actual price paid does not reflect all costs related to the manufacturing of the product which are actually incurred in the Union or in Singapore, the ex-works price means the sum of all those costs, minus any internal taxes which are, or may be, repaid when the product obtained is exported. Where the last working or processing has been subcontracted to a manufacturer, the term “manufacturer” may refer to the enterprise that has employed the subcontractor. (g) “exporter” means a person, located in a Party, who, in accordance with the requirements in the laws and regulations of the Party, exports or produces the originating product and who may make out a statement on origin; (h) “fungible materials” means materials that are of the same kind and commercial quality, with the same technical and physical characteristics, and which cannot be distinguished from one another once they are incorporated into the finished product; (i) “goods” means both materials and products; (j) “juridical person” means any legal entity duly constituted or otherwise organised under applicable law, whether for profit or otherwise, and whether privately-owned or governmentally-owned, including any corporation, trust, partnership, joint venture, sole proprietorship, or association; (k) “manufacture” means any kind of working or processing including assembly; (l) “material” means any ingredient, raw material, component or part, etc., used in the manufacture of the product; (m) “person” means a natural person or juridical person; (n) “product” means the product being manufactured, even if it is intended for later use in another manufacturing operation; (o) “value of materials” means the customs value at the time of importation of the non-originating materials used, or, if this is not known and cannot be ascertained, the first ascertainable price paid for the materials in the Union or in Singapore.’;

1 A statement on origin as referred to in Article 16 (General Requirements) may be made out by the exporter.

2 A statement on origin may be made out if the products concerned can be considered as products originating in the Union or in Singapore and fulfil the other requirements of this Protocol.

3 The exporter making out a statement on origin shall be prepared to submit at any time, at the request of the customs authorities of the exporting Party, all appropriate documents as referred to under Article 23 (Supporting Documents) proving the originating status of the products concerned as well as the fulfilment of the other requirements of this Protocol.

4 A statement on origin shall be made out by the exporter by typing, stamping or printing on the invoice, the delivery note or another commercial document, the declaration, the text of which appears in Annex E to this Protocol, in accordance with the domestic law of the exporting Party. If the statement is hand-written, it shall be written in ink in capital characters. In the case of exports from Singapore, the statement on origin shall be set out using the English version and in the case of exports from Union, the statement on origin may be set out in one of the linguistic versions in Annex E to this Protocol.

5 By derogation from paragraph 1, a statement on origin may be made out after exportation (“retrospective statement”) on condition that it is presented in the importing Party no later than two years, in the case of the Union, and one year, in the case of Singapore, after the entry of the goods into the territory.’;

1 For the application of the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 22 (Exemptions from Statement on Origin) in cases where products are invoiced in a currency other than euro, amounts in the national currencies of the Member States of the Union equivalent to the amounts expressed in euro shall be fixed annually by each of the countries concerned.

2 A consignment shall benefit from the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 22 (Exemptions from Statement on Origin ) by reference to the currency in which the invoice is drawn up, according to the amount fixed by the Party concerned.

3 The amounts to be used in any given national currency shall be the equivalent in that currency of the amounts expressed in euro as at the first working day of October. The amounts shall be communicated to the European Commission by 15 October and shall apply from 1 January the following year. The European Commission shall notify all countries concerned of the relevant amounts.

4 A Member State of the Union may round up or down the amount resulting from the conversion into its national currency of an amount expressed in euro. The rounded amount may not differ from the amount resulting from the conversion by more than five percent. A Member State of the Union may retain unchanged its national currency equivalent of an amount expressed in euro if, at the time of the annual adjustment provided for in paragraph 3, the conversion of that amount, prior to any rounding-off, results in an increase of less than fifteen percent in the national currency equivalent. The national currency equivalent may be retained unchanged if the conversion would result in a decrease in that equivalent value.

5 The amounts expressed in euro shall be reviewed by the Parties in the Committee on Customs established pursuant to Article 16.2 (Specialised Committees) at the request of the Union or of Singapore. When carrying out this review, the Parties shall consider the desirability of preserving the effects of the limits concerned in real terms. For these purposes, the Parties may, by decision in the Committee on Customs, modify the amounts expressed in euro.’;

This Decision shall enter into force on [1 January 2023].