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This Regulation shall enter into force on 20 December 1972. This Regulation is binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 19 December 1972. AGREEMENT between the European Economic Community and the Swiss Confederation THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY, of the one part, and THE SWISS CONFEDERATION, of the other part, DESIRING to consolidate and to extend, upon the enlargement of the European Economic Community, the economic relations existing between the Community and Switzerland and to ensure, with due regard for fair conditions of competition, the harmonious development of their commerce for the purpose of contributing to the work of constructing Europe, RESOLVED to this end to eliminate progressively the obstacles to substantially all their trade, in accordance with the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade concerning the establishment of free trade areas,

DECLARING their readiness to examine, in the light of any relevant factor, and in particular of developments in the Community, the possibility of developing and deepening their relations where it would appear to be useful in the interests of their economies to extend them to fields not covered by this Agreement, HAVE DECIDED, in pursuit of these objectives and considering that no provision of this Agreement may be interpreted as exempting the Contracting Parties from the obligations which are incumbent upon them under other international agreements, TO CONCLUDE THIS AGREEMENT:

1. The provisions concerning the progressive abolition of customs duties on imports shall also apply to customs duties of a fiscal nature. The Contracting Parties may replace a customs duty of a fiscal nature or the fiscal element of a customs duty by an internal tax.

2. Denmark, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom may retain until 1 January 1976 a customs duty of a fiscal nature or the fiscal element of a customs duty in the event of implementation of Article 38 of the “Act concerning the Conditions of Accession and the Adjustments to the Treaties” drawn up and adopted within the Conference between the European Communities and the Kingdom of Denmark, Ireland, the Kingdom of Norway and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

3. Switzerland may retain temporarily, while observing the conditions of Article 18, duties corresponding to the fiscal element contained in customs duties on imports of products specified in Annex II. The Joint Committee provided for in Article 29 shall examine whether the conditions set out in the preceding subparagraph are being met, particularly where a change has been made in the amount of the fiscal element.

The Joint Committee shall examine the position with a view to the conversion of such duties into internal charges before 1 January 1980 or before any other date which it might determine in the light of circumstances.