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Article 318

During the second stage , a compensation mechanism shall be introduced for imports into the Community as at present constituted of those fruit and vegetables coming from Portugal for which a reference price is fixed with regard to third countries .

1 . This mechanism shall be governed by the following rules :

( a ) A comparison shall be made between an offer price of the Portuguese product , calculated in accordance with ( b ) , and a Community offer price . This latter price shall be calculated annually :

- on the basis of the arithmetic mean of the producer prices of each Member State of the Community as at present constituted , plus transport and packaging costs incurred by the products from the production regions to the representative consumption centres of the Community ,

- bearing in mind developments in the costs of production .

The above producer prices shall correspond to the average of the rates recorded during the three years which precede the date on which the Community offer price is fixed .

The Community offer price may not exceed the level of the reference price applied with regard to third countries .

( b ) The Portuguese offer price shall be calculated every marketing day , on the basis of the representative rates recorded or reduced to the importing-wholesale stage in the Community as at present constituted . The price for a product coming from Portugal shall be equal to the lowest representative rate or to the average of the lowest representative rates recorded for at least 30 % of the quantities of the provenance concerned marketed on all the representative markets for which rates are available . This rate or these rates shall be reduced beforehand :

- by the customs duties calculated in accordance with ( c ) ,

- by any correcting amount introduced in accordance with ( d ) .

( c ) The customs duty to be deducted from the rates of the Portuguese product shall be the Common Customs Tariff duty progressively reduced each year at the beginning of the marketing year :

- by one-fifth of its amount where the second stage lasts five years ,

- by one-seventh of its amount where the second stage lasts seven years .

However , the first reduction shall occur at the beginning of the second stage .

( d ) If the price of the Portuguese product , calculated in accordance with ( b ) , is lower than the Community offer price referred to in ( a ) , a corrective amount equal to the difference between these two prices shall be levied on import into the Community as at present constituted by the importing Member State .

( e ) The corrective amount shall be levied until the information ascertained shows that the price of the Portuguese product is equal to , or higher than , the Community price referred to in ( a ) .

2 . Should the Portuguese market be disturbed as a result of imports from the Community as at present constituted , appropriate measures , which may inter alia make provision for a corrective amount to be applied according to procedures to be determined , may be decided upon with regard to imports into Portugal of those fruit and vegetables coming from the Community as at present constituted for which a reference price is fixed .