COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION No 3118/94/ECSC of 19 December 1994 on prior Community surveillance of imports of certain iron and steel products covered by the ECSC Treaty originating in non-member countries

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, and in particular Article 74 thereof,

Whereas by recommendation No 85/94/ECSC (1), the Commission made imports into the Community of certain iron and steel products covered by the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community subject to Community surveillance;

Whereas, in view of current conditions in the steel industry, such prior Community surveillance continues to be necessary to provide statistical information to permit rapid analysis of import trends;

Whereas the completion of the internal market requires that the formalities to be accomplished by Community importers be the same wherever the goods may be cleared;

Whereas the import documents issued for the purposes of Community surveillance must be valid throughout the Community, regardless of the Member State of issue;

Whereas the issue of import documents, while subject to standard conditions at Community level, is to be the responsibility of the national authorities,

MAKES THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATION:

Article 1

1. The release for free circulation in the Community of iron and steel products covered by the ECSC Treaty listed in Annex I, originating in non-member countries other than the countries which are parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), shall be subject to the issue of an import document.

2. The import document or licence (import authorization) shall be issued by the competent authority in the Member States, free of charge and for any quantities requested, upon receipt of the application and in any case within not more than 10 working days of the submission by a Community importer of the completed application, regardless of the importer's place of establishment in the Community.

3. Paragraph 2 shall apply without prejudice to the applicability of Community quantitative limits or to decisions taken in the framework of an agreement or the management of a quota.

4. An import document or licence issued by one of the authorities listed in Annex II shall be valid throughout the Community.

5. The importer's application shall include the particulars provided for in Article 2 (1). Where the goods are to be put into free circulation in a Member State other than that which issued the import document or licence, the form provided for in Annex III must be used.

6. Without prejudice to possible changes in the import regulations in force or decisions taken in the framework of an agreement or the management of a quota:

- the period of validity of the import document or licence is hereby fixed at four months;

- unused or partly used import documents or licences may be renewed.

Article 2

1. The importer's application must state:

(a) the consignor's name and address;

(b) the full name and address of the importer (consignee);

(c) the exact decription of the goods and the combined nomenclature code(s);

(d) the country of origin;

(e) the country of consignment;

(f) the net weight, by combined nomenclature heading;

(g) the cif value at Community frontier by combined nomenclature heading;

(h) whether the products concerned are seconds or of substandard quality (2);

(i) the proposed period and place(s) of customs clearance.

2. The importer shall state whether his application is a repeat of a previous application concerning the same contract.

3. The importer shall certify that his application is accurate and shall submit a copy of the contract of sale or purchase, the pro forma invoice and/or, in cases where the goods are not directly purchased in the country of production, a certificate of production issued by the producing steel mill.

Article 3

Where agreed between the Communtiy and any particular third country, an export licence issued by the authorities of that country shall also be required for the import into the Community of the ECSC products concerned. The list of countries covered by such agreements, together with the date of entry into force of the agreements, shall be published and updated in the form of annexes to this recommendation.

Article 4

1. Without prejudice to Article 1 (3), Article 2 (1) (g) shall not prevent release for free circulation in cases where the unit price for transaction exceeds that indicated in the import document.

2. Without prejudice to Article 1 (3), Article 2 (1) (f) shall not prevent release for free circulation where the quantity of products presented on import does not exceed that stipulated in the import document or licence by more than 5 % on aggregate.

3. Where the goods are to put into free circulation in a Member State other than the one in which the import document or licence was issued, the authority which issued the authorization shall send it directly, together with the application referred to in Article 1 (5), to the licensing authority in the Member State of importation. The latter authority shall if necessary automatically endorse or confirm the authorization issued by the first authority, which shall then be forwarded immediately to customs at the intended place of importation.

4. Applications for import documents or licences and the licences themselves shall be confidential. They shall be restricted to the competent authorities and the applicant.

Article 5

1. Within the first ten days of each month, the Member States shall notify the Commission of the tonnage and values (calculated in ECU) for which import documents or licences were issued during the preceding month, giving the particulars entered in the importers' applications under Article 2 (1) (c) to (h).

2. The Member States shall give notification of any anomalies or cases of fraud which they discover and, where relevant, the basis on which they have refused to grant an import document or licence.

Article 6

This recommendation shall be applicable from 1 January 1995.

It shall apply until 31 December 1995.

Done at Brussels, 19 December 1994.

For the Commission

Leon BRITTAN

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ No L 17, 20. 1. 1994, p. 1.

(2) Under the criteria given in OJ No C 180, 11. 7. 1991, p. 4.

PARARTIMA I ANEXO I - BILAG I - ANHANG I - - ANNEX I - ANNEXE I - ALLEGATO I - BIJLAGE I - ANEXO I

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ANNEX II

MEMBER STATES' LICENSING ADDRESSES BELGIUM

Ministère des affaires économiques

Office central des contingents et licences

rue J. A. De Mot 24-26

B-1040 Bruxelles

Fax: 32-2/230 83 22

Ministerie van Economische Zaken

Centrale Dienst voor Contingenten en Vergunningen

J.-A. De Motstraat 24-26

B-1040 Brussel

Fax: 32-2/230 83 22

SPAIN

Ministerio de Comercio y Turismo

Dirección General de Comercio Exterior

Paseo de la Castellana 162

E-28046 Madrid

Fay: 34-1/563 18 23

GREECE

Ypoyrgeio Ethnikis Oikonomias

Diefthynsi Rythmistikon Thematon

Exoterikoy Emporioy

Mitropoleos 1, Plateia Syntagmatos

GR-10557 Athina

Fax: 30-1/323 43 93

UNITED KINGDOM

Department of Trade and Industry, North East,

Import Licensing Branch,

Queensway House, West Precinct,

UK-Billingham, Cleveland,

TS23 2NF;

Telefax: 44-642/53 35 57

IRELAND

Department of Trade and Industry,

Trade Regulation Branch,

Frederick Building, Setanda Centre,

South Frederick Street,

IRL-Dublin 2;

telefax: 353-1/679 57 10

AUSTRIA

Bundesministerium fuer wirtschaftliche

Angelegenheiten

Aussenwirtschaftsadministration

Landstrasser Hauptstrasse 55-57

A-1030 Wien

Fax: 43-1/715 83 47

DENMARK

Erhvervsfremme Styrelsen

Soendergade 25

DK-8600 Silkeborg

Fax: 45-87 20 40 77

GERMANY

Bundesamt fuer Wirtschaft, Dienst 01

Postfach 5171

D-65762 Eschborn 1

Fax: 49-6196/40 42 12

FRANCE

Ministère de l'industrie

Seribe

3-5, rue Barbet-de-Jouy

F-75353 Paris 07 SP

Fax: 33-1/43 19 43 69

THE NETHERLANDS

Centrale Dienst voor In- en Uitvoer

Postbus 30.003, Engelse Kamp 2

NL-9722 AX Groningen

Fax: 31-50/26 06 98

PORTUGAL

Direcçao-Geral do Comércio Externo

Av. da República, 79

P-1000 Lisboa

Fax: 351-1/793 22 10

ITALY

Ministero per il Commercio estero

D.G. Import-export, Division V

Via Boston

I-00144 Roma

Fax: 39-6/59 93 26 36; 59 93 26 37

LUXEMBOURG

Ministère des affaires étrangères

Office des licences

BP 113

L-2011 Luxembourg

Téléfax: 352/46 61 38

FINLAND

National Board of Customs,

Annankatu 12 A,

FIN-00120 Helsinki;

Telefax: 358-0/614 27 64

SWEDEN

Swedish National Board of Trade,

Box 1209,

S-11182 Stockholm;

Telefax: 46-8/20 03 24.

ANNEX III