Voluntary Report - public distribution

**Date:** 3/3/2005

**GAIN Report Number:** E35040

E35040

**EU-25**

**Livestock and Products**

**EU honors U.S. request to change rules on licensing for pig meat
import TRQ**

**2005**

**Approved by:**

![](media/image1.wmf)Norval E. Francis

U.S. Mission to the European Union

**Prepared by:**

Yvan Polet

**Report Highlights:**

On February 25, 2005, Commission Regulation 341/2005 was published,
which increased the maximum licensing quantity for the pig import TRQ
into the EU from ten to twenty percent. The change to the licensing
procedure was approved upon request from the U.S. Government and was
implemented on March 1, 2005.

Includes PSD Changes: No

Includes Trade Matrix: No

Unscheduled Report

Brussels USEU \[BE2\]

\[E3\]

**U.S. request to change pork import TRQ licensing honored in Commission
Regulation (EC) 341/2005 of February 25, 2005.**

At the request of the U.S. Government, the European Commission Pig
Management Committee (Pig Mancom) approved a change to the licensing
system of the EU pork import TRQ. The Pig Mancom report stated: "*There
was a discussion on possible amendments to Regulations 1432/94 and
1458/2003 with regard to changing the maximum quantity (currently 10
percent of quota) to which applications for import licenses must refer.
Most Member States would prefer a 20 per cent of quota maximum. A
proposal to alter this may be made at a later date.*" This was
formalized in the [Commission Regulation (EC)
341/2005](http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_053/l_05320050226en00280028.pdf),
which allows individual importers to apply for 20 percent of the maximum
licensing quantity for import of pigmeat into the EU, compared with 10
percent previously. This will offer significantly larger pork export
opportunities to U.S. exporters.

# Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1458/2003

[Commission Regulation (EC) No.
1458/2003](http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_208/l_20820030819en00030010.pdf),
of August 18, 2003, regulates the administration of trade in the pig
meat sector. EC 1458/2003 sets up separate TRQs for six groups of pork
products, and defines the licensing system that provides access to the
various TRQs. An explanation on the allocation of the quota licenses was
described as follows:

*Article 4*

*The import licences for the tariff quotas provided for in Annex I shall
be subject to the following provisions:*

*(b) licence applications may refer to only one of the group numbers set
out in Annex I to this Regulation and may relate to more than one
product covered by different CN codes and originating from only one
country; in such cases, all the CN codes shall be indicated in section
16 and their descriptions in section 15; for group G2, licence
applications must relate to at least 20 tonnes and to a maximum of 10 %
of the quantity available for the period as specified in Article 3; for
the other groups, licence applications must relate to at least one tonne
and to a maximum of 10 % of the quantity available for the period as
specified in Article 3;*

*Article 5*

*1. Licence applications shall be lodged during the first seven days of
the month preceding each period as specified in Article 3.*

*2. Licence applications shall only be admissible where the applicant
declares in writing that he has not submitted and undertakes not to
submit any other applications during the current period for products in
the same group fixed in Annex I in the Member State in which his
application is submitted or in any other Member State.*

*Where an applicant submits more than one application relating to
products in the same group fixed in Annex I, all applications from that
person shall be inadmissible; however, each applicant may lodge several
applications for import licences for products in the same group fixed in
Annex I, if these products originate in different countries.*

*3. The applications, one each for a single country of origin, shall be
submitted together to the competent authority of a Member State. They
shall be considered, as regards the maximum referred to in Article 4(b)
as well as application of the rule set out in subparagraph 2 of
paragraph 2, as a single application.*

# Background

The EU's reason for limiting the maximum quantity for import licenses to
10 percent of the quota for individual importers was meant to keep the
opportunity for import into the EU under this TRQ open to a wide range
of importers and exporters. However, as only a limited number of
importers applied for pork import licenses to the EU, this rule
systematically led to a large underfill of the total quota available,
while interested exporters were limited in their export potential. While
a change to 20 percent of quota maximum per application would probably
still leave the TRQ underfilled unless the number of import applications
increases, it will offer better export opportunities to the EU for
interested pork processors.

This following table shows the change in licensing percentages of the
quota maximum per product group from this new regulation.

  ------- -------------------------------------- ------------ -------------
  Group   Description                            EC 1458/2003 EC 341/2005

  G2      Boned loins and hams, fresh, chilled   10           20
          or frozen                                           

  G3      Tenderloin, fresh, chilled or frozen   10           20

  G4      Sausages, dry or for spreading,        10           20
          uncooked                                            

  G5      Other prepared or preserved meat, meat 10           20
          offal or blood                                      

  G6      Carcasses and half-carcasses, fresh,   10           20
          chilled or frozen                                   

  G7      Cuts, fresh, chilled or frozen, boned  10           20
          and with bone in, excluding                         
          tenderloin, presented alone                         
  ------- -------------------------------------- ------------ -------------

**Related reports from USEU Brussels:**

  ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- ---------------
  Report Number                                                Title                                     Date Released

  E35019                                                       Approved Lists of Animal Product          02/01/2005
                                                               Establishments                            

  E35018                                                       Livestock semi-annual                     01/31/2005

  These reports can be accessed through our website                                                      
  [www.useu.be/agri](http://www.useu.be/agri) or through the                                             
  FAS website                                                                                            
  <http://www.fas.usda.gov/scriptsw/attacherep/default.asp>.                                             
  ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- ---------------

**Visit our website:** our website
**[www.useu.be/agri/usda.html]{.underline}** provides a broad range of
useful information on EU import rules and food laws and allows easy
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