COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION No 556/91/ECSC of 7 March 1991 on Community surveillance of imports of certain iron and steel products covered by the ECSC Treaty and 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 3979/89/ECSC (1), the Commission subjected to a Community monitoring system the imports into the Community of certain iron and steel products covered by the ECSC Treaty;

Whereas the reasons which originally led the Commission to introduce this measure continue to apply and the said surveillance system should therefore be continued so as to provide more detailed information on foreseeable imports and the terms and conditions of such imports;

Whereas an abnormal increase in imports of seconds and products of substandard quality has recently been observed, and these imports should be monitored more closely,

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 II and originating in non-member countries other than EFTA, shall be subject to the issue of an import document.

2. The products referred to in paragraph 1 shall be considered as being of first-choice quality until the importer provides proof to the contrary.

3. The import document shall be issued or endorsed by 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 from the submission of the completed application and presentation of two duplicates of the relevant purchase contract(s) and the vendor's order confirmation(s). The originals of these documents as well as the pro forma invoice must be produced if required by the licence-issuing authority.

4. Paragraph 1 shall apply without prejudice to the maintenance of existing quantitative restrictions imposed by Member States on certain iron and steel products in respect of certain non-member countries.

5. The period of validity of the import document is hereby fixed at three months, without prejudice to possible changes in the import arrangements in force.

Article 2

1. The importer's application must state:

(a) the name, address, occupation, telephone, telefax and telex numbers of the importer;

(b) the description of the goods and the CN code (2);

(c) the country of origin;

(d) the country of consignment;

(e) the net weight, by individual lots;

(f) the currency and value invoiced (cif or daf);

(g) the proposed date and place of customs clearance;

(h) where the products concerned are seconds or of substandard quality, the precise characteristics establishing that this is the case, in accordance with the instructions given by the Commission in its communication on distinguishing criteria.

2. The following additional information shall also be supplied by the importer:

A. For goods originating in and consigned direct from one of the countries listed in Annex I (direct importation):

(a) the commercial description of the goods, including exact specifications, whether they are for use in shipbuilding, details of the exporter and place of delivery;

(b) the delivered price per tonne, exclusive of VAT, including details of all the items figuring in the calculation of the delivered price, particularly extras, rebates and transport costs to the point of delivery;

(c) particulars of:

(i) the Community producer's price list chosen for calculating the delivered price, including the date of the chosen list; or

(ii) where appropriate, the non-member country offer on which the terms of the delivery have been aligned, in sufficient detail to identify the offer and including the date;

(d) for goods falling within CN code 7201, the name and address of the final purchaser, where known.

B. For goods originating in one of the countries listed in Annex I but consigned from any non-member country other than the country of origin (indirect importation), and for goods originating in a non-member country not listed in Annex I:

(a) a complete description corresponding to that appearing in the list of products subject to the basic prices in force, and details of the exporter and the place of delivery;

(b) the cif or daf price at the Community frontier, per tonne, in the currency of the contract, plus customs duties applicable and unloading costs;

(c) for goods falling within CN code 7201, the name and address of the final purchaser, where known.

3. The importer shall declare that neither he nor the purchaser will be granted any reduction, rebate or other form of refund not mentioned in the contract for the transaction, either at the time of the transaction or subsequently.

4. The importer shall certify that his application for an import document is accurate.

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

Article 3

1. When an import document for goods originating in the countries listed in Annex I is granted, the Member States shall notify the Commission of any differences between:

- the delivered price calculated on the basis of the reference price list, and

- the delivered price calculated on the basis of the contract or the pro forma invoice.

They shall also furnish all necessary documents, in particular the duplicates of import licence applications, purchase contracts and vendor's order confirmations, whenever the price difference noted is considerable or relates to a large quantity.

If abnormally high levels of imports of seconds or substandard goods are observed, the Commission shall in addition request that Member States provide, for a period that it shall determine, proof as to the nature of these products, in accordance with the criteria referred to in Article 2 (1) (h). This shall apply to imports in which the proportion of seconds or substandard goods exceeds 10 % of the total delivery specified in the contract, and where their quantity exceeds 50 tonnes.

2. When an import document is granted for goods:

- originating in non-member countries other than those listed in Annex I,

- originating in a country listed in Annex I, but consigned from a non-member country other than the country of origin (indirect importation),

Member States shall inform the Commission of any difference, in ecus per tonne, between:

- the basic price as published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, and

- the cif or daf price at the Community frontier, including customs duties applicable and unloading costs.

If abnormally high levels of imports of seconds or substandard goods are observed, the Commission shall in addition request that the Member States provide, for a period that it shall determine, proof as to the nature of these products, in accordance with the criteria referred to in Article 2 (1) (h). This shall apply to imports in which the proportion of seconds or substandard goods exceeds 10 % of the total delivery specified in the contract, and where their quantity exceeds 50 tonnes.

3. Within the first 10 days of each month, the Member States shall notify the Commission of the tonnage and values (calculated on the basis of the cif or daf prices) for which import documents were issued during the preceding month.

4. The information supplied by the Member States shall include:

(a) a breakdown by country of origin;

(b) a breakdown by product (combined nomenclature) for each country of origin;

(c) for each country of origin, the quantities of products declared as being seconds or of substandard quality;

(d) within the total of any one product originating in any one country, the quantities not imported direct from that country and, in such cases, an indication of the country of consignment;

(e) full details of each case detected by customs of fraud relating to a large quantity (in accordance with the standard set out under paragraphs 1 and 2) of products declared as being seconds or of substandard quality.

5. Within the first 10 days of each month, Member States shall notify to the Commission:

(a) the tonnage and the values (calculated on the basis of the cif or daf price) for which import documents expired during the preceding month without having been fully or partially used;

(b) the tonnage and the values (calculated on the basis of the cif or daf price) for which previously-issued import documents were renewed in whole or in part in the preceding month.

Article 4

The recommendation is addressed to the Member States.

Article 5

This recommendation shall take effect on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall apply until 31 December 1991.

Done at Brussels, 7 March 1991.

For the Commission

Frans ANDRIESSEN

Vice President

(1) OJ No L 380, 29. 12. 1989, p. 17.

(2) OJ No L 247, 10. 9. 1990, p. 1.

ANNEX I

Brazil Poland Bulgaria Romania Czechoslovakia Hungary

ANNEX II

7201 10 11

7201 10 19

7201 10 30

7201 10 90

7201 20 00

7201 30 10

7201 30 90

7201 40 00

7202 11 20

7202 11 80

7202 99 11

7203 90 00

7204 50 10

7204 50 90

7206 10 00

7206 90 00

7207 11 11

7207 11 19

7207 12 11

7207 12 19

7207 19 11

7207 19 15

7207 19 31

7207 20 11

7207 20 15

7207 20 17

7207 20 31

7207 20 33

7207 20 51

7207 20 55

7207 20 57

7207 20 71

7208 11 00

7208 12 10

7208 12 91

7208 12 95

7208 12 98

7208 13 10

7208 13 91

7208 13 95

7208 13 98

7208 14 10

7208 14 91

7208 14 99

7208 21 10

7208 21 90

7208 22 10

7208 22 91

7208 22 95

7208 22 98

7208 23 10

7208 23 91

7208 23 95

7208 23 98

7208 24 10

7208 24 91

7208 24 99

7208 31 00

7208 32 10

7208 32 30

7208 32 51

7208 32 59

7208 32 91

7208 32 99

7208 33 10

7208 33 91

7208 33 99

7208 34 10

7208 34 90

7208 35 10

7208 41 00

7208 42 10

7208 42 30

7208 42 51

7208 42 59

7208 42 91

7208 42 99

7208 43 10

7208 43 91

7208 43 99

7208 44 10

7208 44 90

7208 45 10

7208 90 10

7209 11 00

7209 12 10

7209 12 90

7209 13 10

7209 13 90

7209 14 10

7209 14 90

7209 21 00

7209 22 10

7209 22 90

7209 23 10

7209 23 90

7209 24 10

7209 24 91

7209 24 99

7209 31 00

7209 32 10

7209 32 90

7209 33 10

7209 33 90

7209 34 10

7209 34 90

7209 41 00

7209 42 10

7209 42 90

7209 43 10

7209 43 90

7209 44 10

7209 44 90

7209 90 10

7210 11 10

7210 12 11

7210 12 19

7210 20 10

7210 31 10

7210 39 10

7210 41 10

7210 49 10

7210 50 10

7210 60 11

7210 60 19

7210 70 21

7210 70 29

7210 90 31

7210 90 33

7210 90 35

7210 90 39

7211 11 00

7211 12 10

7211 12 90

7211 19 10

7211 19 91

7211 19 99

7211 21 00

7211 22 10

7211 22 90

7211 29 10

7211 29 91

7211 29 99

7211 30 10

7211 41 10

7211 41 91

7211 49 10

7211 90 11

7212 10 10

7212 10 91

7212 21 11

7212 29 11

7212 30 11

7212 40 10

7212 40 91

7212 50 31

7212 50 51

7212 60 11

7212 60 91

7213 10 00

7213 20 00

7213 31 00

7213 39 00

7213 41 00

7213 49 00

7213 50 10

7213 50 90

7214 20 00

7214 30 00

7214 40 10

721440 91

7214 40 99

7214 50 10

7214 50 91

7214 50 99

7214 60 00

7215 90 10

7216 10 00

7216 21 00

7216 22 00

7216 31 11

7216 31 19

7216 31 91

7216 31 99

7216 32 11

7216 32 19

7216 32 91

7216 32 99

7216 33 10

7216 33 90

7216 40 10

7216 40 90

7216 50 10

7216 50 90

7216 90 10

7218 10 00

7218 90 11

7218 90 13

7218 90 15

7218 90 19

7218 90 50

7219 11 10

7219 11 90

7219 12 10

7219 12 90

7219 13 10

7219 13 90

7219 14 10

7219 14 90

7219 21 11

7219 21 19

7219 21 90

7219 22 10

7219 22 90

7219 23 10

7219 23 90

7219 24 10

7219 24 90

7219 31 10

7219 31 90

7219 32 10

7219 32 90

7219 33 10

7219 33 90

7219 34 10

7219 34 90

7219 35 10

7219 35 90

7219 90 11

7219 90 19

7220 11 00

7220 12 00

7220 20 10

7220 90 11

7220 90 31

7221 00 10

7221 00 90

7222 10 11

7222 10 19

7222 10 51

7222 10 59

7222 10 99

7222 30 10

7222 40 11

7222 40 19

7222 40 30

7224 10 00

7224 90 01

7224 90 09

7224 90 15

7224 90 30

7225 10 10

7225 10 91

7225 10 99

7225 20 10

7225 20 30

7225 30 00

7225 40 10

7225 40 30

7225 40 50

7225 40 70

7225 40 90

7225 50 10

7225 50 90

7225 90 10

7226 10 10

7226 10 30

7226 20 10

7226 20 31

7226 20 51

7226 20 71

7226 91 10

7226 91 90

7226 92 10

7226 99 11

7226 99 31

7227 10 00

7227 20 00

7227 90 10

7227 90 30

7227 90 80

7228 10 10

7228 10 30

7228 20 11

7228 20 19

7228 20 30

7228 30 10

7228 30 30

7228 30 80

7228 60 10

7228 70 10

7228 70 31

7228 80 10

7228 80 90

7301 10 00