20. 11. 91 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 318/3 COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3357/91 - of 7 November 1991 amending Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 setting up a Community system of reliefs from customs duty THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 28 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas the administrative simplification provided for in Article 27 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 of 28 March 1983 setting up a Community system of reliefs from customs duty ('), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 4235/88 (%), must, if it is to be effective, be applied to all imports of consignments made up of goods of negligible value ; Whereas Article 27 of Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 should be amended accordingly; Whereas the provisions of Articles 52 to 57, 63a and 63b, and 72 to 77 of Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 should be revised in the light of experience in order to remove conditions which are expensive and complicated to apply and thus to facilitate imports of the goods in question ; Whereas the condition of non-equivalence of Community products should therefore be abolished, since, where it is still really applied, it does not succeed in providing effective protection as it comes too late in the process of development of these products, and since its implementa- tion is fraught with disputes amongst experts which can sensibly be settled only by more or less systematically giving way to the importer’s interests and by recognizing his right to a relief owing to the special circumstances surrounding his import, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION : Article 1 Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 is hereby amended as follows : 1. Article 27 shall be replaced by the following : Article 27 Subject to Article 28, any consignments made up of goods of negligible value dispatched direct from a third country to a consignee in the Community shall be admitted free of import duties. () OJ No L 105, 23. 4. 1983, p. 1. () O] No L 373, 31. 12. 1988, p. 1. “Goods of negligible value” means goods the intrinsic value of which does not exceed a total of ECU 22 per consignment.’ . Articles 52, 53 and 54 shall be replaced by the fol- lowing : Article 52 1. Subject to Articles 53, 54, 56, 57 and 58, scientific instruments and apparatus which are not included in Article 51 shall be admitted free of import duties when they are imported exclusively for non-commercial purposes. 2. The relief referred to in paragraph 1 shall be limited to scientific instruments and apparatus which are intended for: — either public establishments principally engaged in education or scientific research and those depart- ments of public establishments which are princi- pally engaged in education or scientific research, — or private establishments principally engaged in education or scientific research and approved by the competent authorities of the Member States to receive such articles duty free. Article 53 The relief shall also apply to: (a) spare parts, components or accessories specifically " suitable for scientific instruments or apparatus, provided that such spare parts, components or accessories are imported at the same time as such instruments or apparatus or, where they are imported subsequently, that they can be identified as being intended for instruments or apparatus : — which have previously been admitted duty free, provided that such instruments or apparatus are still of a scientific nature at the time when relief is requested for the specific spare parts, components or accessories, or - which would be entitled to relief at the time when such relief is requested for the specific spare parts, components Of accessories ; (b) tools to be used for the maintenance, checking, calibration or repair of scientific instruments or apparatus, provided that these tools are imported at the same time as such instruments and apparatus or, where they are imported subsequently, that they can be identified as being intended for instruments or apparatus :