Import Duties Act 1958
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1958 c. 6 |
| Year | 1958 |
Import Duties Act , 1958
(6 & 7 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 6
An Act to confer new powers to impose duties of customs in place of the powers conferred by the Import Duties Act, 1932, and, in connection therewith, to repeal the duties of customs chargeable under or by virtue of that Act and of certain other enactments and make general provision for the purpose of customs duties as to Commonwealth preference and as to produce of the sea, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
Most Gracious Sovereign,
We , Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled, have freely and voluntarily resolved to give and grant unto Your Majesty the duties for which provision is hereinafter contained; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted, by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Charge of, and Principal Provisions as to, Import Duties
1 New power to charge protective duties.
(1) The Import Duties Act, 1932, shall cease to have effect, but with a view to affording protection to goods produced in the United Kingdom the Treasury on the recommendation of the Board of Trade may, if it appears to them expedient in the national interest, by order direct that on the importation into the United Kingdom of goods of any description there shall be charged under this section such duty of customs as may be specified in the order.
In this Act ‘import duty’ means a duty under this section.
(2) The Treasury and the Board of Trade, in considering what import duty (if any) ought to be charged on goods of any description, shall have regard to the desirability of maintaining and promoting the external trade of the United Kingdom, to the desirability of maintaining and promoting efficiency of production in the United Kingdom and to the interests of consumers in the United Kingdom.
(3) In considering what import duty (if any) ought to be charged on goods of any description, the Treasury and the Board of Trade shall also take account of any agreements between Her Majesty's government in the United Kingdom and any other government or any international organisation or authority; and, where it appears to them expedient with a view to implementing the provisions of any such agreement regarding commercial relations, an order imposing or varying import duties may differentiate between the goods of different countries, and may do so subject or not to conditions as to the place from which the goods are consigned to the United Kingdom.
(4) The power of the Treasury to make orders under this section shall include power to prescribe a form of customs tariff in accordance with which goods may be classified for other purposes as well as for the purpose of import duties, and to provide accordingly for goods to be classified in any way appearing to the Treasury to be convenient, having regard to the import duties imposed or to be imposed under this section, to other customs duties, to any exemption from customs duty provided for by any Act, and to any international agreement relating to customs matters.
2 Commonwealth preference.
(1) Orders under section one of this Act may provide that the import duty imposed on goods of any description shall not be chargeable on goods qualifying for Commonwealth preference or shall be chargeable on them at a preferential rate; and the power conferred by that section to impose import duties with a view to affording protection to goods produced in the United Kingdom shall include power to impose import duties with a view to affording preference to goods qualifying for Commonwealth preference.
(2) The goods qualifying for Commonwealth preference shall be any goods of the area referred to in this Act as the Commonwealth preference area which are consigned to the United Kingdom from a place in that area.
(3) Subject to the following provisions of this section, the Commonwealth preference area shall consist of—
(a ) the United Kingdom; and
(b ) the countries named as parts of that area in subsection (4) of this section; and
(c ) any country not named (nor included in a country named) in the said subsection (4) which for the time being forms part of Her Majesty's dominions outside the United Kingdom; and
(d ) any country not named (nor included in a country named) in the said subsection (4) which is for the time being under Her Majesty's protection through Her Majesty's government in the United Kingdom, or administered by that government under the trusteeship system of the United Nations; and
(e ) any country not named (nor included in a country named) in the said subsection (4) which is for the time being administered by the government of a country included in the Commonwealth preference area under paragraph (b ) of this subsection.
(4) The countries referred to in paragraph (b ) of subsection (3) of this section shall be the following Commonwealth countries, namely, the Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, Ceylon, Ghana, India, the Federation of Malaya, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and the Union of South Africa, together with Burma and the Republic of Ireland:
Provided that Her Majesty may by Order in Council direct that the name of any country shall be added to this subsection, including that of any country which but for the order would be included in the Commonwealth preference area under paragraph (c ) of subsection (3) of this section.
(5) Her Majesty may by Order in Council direct that any country for the time being named in subsection (4) of this section shall not form part of the Commonwealth preference area.
(6) A country falling within paragraph (d ) or (e ) of subsection (3) of this section shall not be included in the Commonwealth preference area under that paragraph unless either it fell within that paragraph at the date of the passing of this Act or Her Majesty by Order in Council directs that it shall be so included.
(7) Any Order in Council under subsection (5) or (6) of this section may be revoked by a subsequent Order in Council.
(8) No recommendation shall be made to Her Majesty in Council to make an order under this section unless a draft of the order has been laid before Parliament and approved by resolution of each House of Parliament.
(9) Goods of any of the following countries, that is to say, the Union of South Africa, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland, shall for the purpose of qualifying them for Commonwealth preference be deemed to be consigned to the United Kingdom from that country if they are so consigned from the port of Loureno Marques in Portuguese East Africa, or, in the case of goods of the said Federation or Protectorate, if they are so consigned either from that port or from the port of Beira in Portuguese East Africa.
(10) From the beginning of the year nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, the provisions of the First Schedule to this Act (being provisions designed to secure a uniform system of Commonwealth preference for import duties and other duties, and otherwise to adapt the enactments relating to customs preferences to the provisions of this Act) shall have effect in relation to the enactments and duties there mentioned.
3 Additional provisions as to charge of import duties.
(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section and to subsection (4) of section two of the Customs Duties (Dumping and Subsidies) Act, 1957 (under which duties under that Act are chargeable in addition to any other duty of customs), no import duty shall be chargeable on goods on which a duty of customs is for the time being chargeable under any Act other than this Act; but duties of customs shall cease to be chargeable under or by virtue of any provision specified in the Second Schedule to this Act.
(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall not prevent import duties being charged on any of the following goods, notwithstanding that those goods may be chargeable with a duty of customs under some other Act, that is to say,—
(a ) any substance consisting (apart from impurities, if any) of a separate chemically defined organic compound, or of a mixture of two or more isomers of the same such compound, and being either—
(i) a chemical chargeable with duty under section two of the Finance Act, 1928 (which relates to hydrocarbon oils); or
(ii) saccharin; and
(b ) dextrose and laevulose, chemically pure.
(3) Subsection (1) of this section shall not prevent import duties being charged on composite goods in addition to other duties chargeable on the goods in respect of their components, except where the goods are chargeable with other duties in respect of all their components.
(4) Section two hundred and fifty-nine of the Customs and Excise Act, 1952, and section five of the Finance Act, 1957 (which make provision as to duties and drawbacks in respect of dutiable parts or ingredients), shall not have effect in relation to import duties.
(5) Any import duty expressed to be chargeable on goods of any description, if that description includes goods which are exempt from import duties as being chargeable with another duty of customs or for any other reason, shall be taken to extend to such goods of that description as may from time to time not be exempt, including goods exempt when the duty is imposed but afterwards ceasing to be so; and orders may be made imposing, or providing for relief from, import duties on exempt goods in expectation of...
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