COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 1175/93 of 10 May 1993 opening and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for certain agricultural products originating in Austria, Norway and Sweden
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 113 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Whereas the Community signed Bilateral Agreements on certain arrangements in agriculture in the form of exchanges of letters with Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland at Oporto on 2 May 1992;
Whereas these Agreements were negotiated and signed at the same time as the Agreement on the European Economic Area between the European Economic Community, the European Coal and Steel Community and their Member States, of the one part, and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, of the other part; whereas the aim of all the parties was to bring the EEA Agreement and the Bilateral Agreements on agriculture into force at the same time;
Whereas, as a result of the postponement of the entry into force of the EEA Agreement following Switzerland's decision not to ratify it, Agreements in the form of exchanges of letters were signed on 17 March 1993 between the Community and, respectively, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden with the aim of bringing forward implementation of the bilateral agreements on agriculture with these countries for the period running from 15 April until 31 December 1993;
Whereas the Council has approved, by the Decision of 15 March 1993 (1), the said Agreements;
Whereas on the basis of the arrangements annexed to the Bilateral Agreements on agriculture concluded between the Community of the one part and Austria, Norway and Sweden, respectively, of the other part, which were signed on 2 May 1992, the Community is to open annual reduced-duty and zero-duty tariff quotas for certain agricultural products originating in the abovementioned countries; whereas under Annex III to the arrangement between the Community and Austria, imports into Portugal of wine originating in Austria are subject to duties equal to those applied by Portugal to imports from the Community as constituted on 31 December 1985;
Whereas the provisions annexed to the arrangements concerned provide that, should the date of entry into force of the said arrangements not coincide with the beginning of the calendar year, the provisions concerning the opening of tariff quotas shall be applied on a pro rata basis for the first year; whereas it is advisable in the interests of clarity to group together all the agricultural products which benefit from tariff quotas in Annex I to this Regulation according to their place of origin, specifying for each product the volume of tariff quotas and the rates of customs duty applicable; whereas in establishing the volume of these tariff quotas, account should be taken that during 1992 and/or 1993 some products have received the benefit of a reduced duty or zero-duty tariff quota by application to the agreements currently in force with the countries in question; whereas it is consequently appropriate to repeal, with effect from 15 April 1993, Regulations (EEC) No 1694/92 (2) and (EEC) No 221/93 (3) in their entirety and those parts of Regulation (EEC) No 303/93 (4) relating to the tariff quotas under order No 09.0801; whereas it is necessary, in particular, to ensure equal and uninterrupted access for all Community importers to the said quotas and to ensure the uninterrupted application of the rates laid down for the quotas to all imports of the products concerned into all Member States until the quotas have been used up;
Whereas the decision opening tariff quotas should be taken by the Community in pursuance of its international obligations; whereas, to ensure the efficient common administration of the quotas, there is no reason why Member States should not be allowed to draw from the quota-volumes the necessary quantities corresponding to actual imports; whereas this method of administration nonetheless requires close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission and the latter must in particular be able to monitor the rate at which the quotas are used up and inform the Member States accordingly;
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented by the Benelux Economic Union, any operation concerning the administration of these quotas may be carried out by any of its members,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
1. From 15 April until 31 December 1993, the customs duties applicable to imports of the products listed in Annex I shall be suspended under certain conditions at the levels and within the limits of the Community tariff quotas shown below.
2. Within the time limit of the quotas referred to in Annex I (a) under order Nos 09.0803 to 09.0805, Portugal shall apply duties equal to those that it applies to imports from the Community as constituted on 31 December 1985.
3. Admission under the tariff quotas referred to in paragraph 1 under order Nos 09.0803 and 09.0805 shall be reserved for wines accompanied by the following documents:
- Document VI 1 or and extract VI 2, completed in accordance with Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3590/85 (5). In this case, the document must include in Box 15 the following endorsement, certified by the competent Austrian organization:
'This is to certify that the wine referred to in this document is a quality wine/quality sparkling wine (a) originating in Austria and in conformity with the 1985 Wine Law of the Republic of Austria.
(a) Delete as appropriate.'
4. Imports of the wines in question shall be subject to the free-at-frontier reference price. Access for these wines to the tariff quotas shall be conditional on compliance with Article 54 of Regulation (EEC) No 822/87 (6).
Article 2
The tariff quotas referred to in Article 1 shall be managed by the Commission, which may take any appropriate administrative measures to ensure that they are managed efficiently.
Article 3
Where an importer presents a product covered by this Regulation for release for free circulation in a Member State, applying to take advantage of the preferential arrangements, and the entry is accepted by the customs authorities, the Member State concerned shall, by notifying the Commission, draw an amount corresponding to its requirements from the quota volume.
Requests for drawings, indicating the date on which the entries were accepted, must be sent to the Commission without delay.
Drawings shall be granted by the Commission in chronological order of the dates on which the customs authorities of the Member States concerned accepted the entries for release for free circulation, to the extent that the available balance so permits.
If a Member State does not use a drawing in full, it shall return any unused portion to the corresponding quota volume as soon as possible.
If the quantities requested are greater than the available balance of the quota volume, the balance shall be allocated among applicants pro rata. The Commission shall inform the Member States accordingly.
Article 4
Each Member State shall ensure that importers of the products in question have equal and continuous access to the quotas for as long as the balance of the relevant quota volume so permits.
Article 5
Member States and the Commission shall cooperate closely to ensure that this Regulation is complied with.
Article 6
Regulations (EEC) No 1694/92 and (EEC) No 221/93 shall be repealed with effect from 15 April 1993. The tariff quota under order No 09.0801 provided by Regulation (EEC) No 303/93 shall cease to apply as from the same date.
Article 7
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 10 May 1993.