ABSTRACT
The oil crises of the 1970s did not lead to the break up of the European Communities. On April 1, 1974 Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland carried out the first reduction of forty per cent in their customs duties in order to bring their rates into line with those of the Common External Tariffs. Further reductions took place on an annual basis until, on December 30, 1977, the three new member states reached the end of the transitional period allowed to them under the 1973 treaty of accession. They were, in this respect, following the same kind of pattern which had enabled the six original members of the European Economic Community to abolish their customs duties by reducing them on a yearly basis from 1959 onwards, the only difference being that France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany had succeeded in doing so eighteen months ahead of schedule, abolishing customs duties on manufactured goods and introducing the Common External Tariff on July 1, 1967 instead of in December 1968.
