CAPI02050 - General principles: legal provisions

The Treaty of Rome provides the basis for the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. The products subject to CAP and referred to in this book as ‘CAP goods’ are:

• basic agricultural goods listed in Annex I to the Treaty of Amsterdam as ‘products of the soil, of stock farming and fisheries and of first stage processing’, and
• processed products derived from basic products and generally known as ‘non-Annex I’ goods.

Notice 780 (CAP: Imports Procedures), contains lists of basic and non-Annex I goods.

CAP goods are split into agricultural market sectors, each governed by a base regulation, while subsidiary regulations lay down specific rules and control provisions. However, not all agricultural products are necessarily subject to specific CAP import measures or controls.

General rules relating to the importation of all non-EU goods are set out in the Community Customs Code and its Implementing Provisions, Regulations 2913/92 and 2454/93 respectively.