COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 395/92 of 29 December 1992 on the arrangements for imports of certain textile products originating in Taiwan

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 Council Regulation (EEC) No 4134/86 of 22 December 1986 on the arrangements for imports of certain textile products originating in Taiwan (1) laid down the arrangements for imports into the Community of the products in question until 31 December 1992;

Whereas those arrangements should be maintained beyond that date and adjusted as part of the revision of the Community's overall commercial policy on textile products and the realization of the internal market as from 1 January 1993;

Whereas, in order inter alia to ensure compliance with the objectives of this Regulation, the release for free circulation of the products in question should be made subject to import authorization on presentation of an export document issued in Taiwan by a body affording all the necessary guarantees;

Whereas it is necessary to provide that neither handicraft or traditional folklore products, for which an appropriate certification system will be devised, nor products introduced into the customs territory of the Community under the inward processing rules or under other temporary admission rules and re-exported from that territory in the same state or after processing are to be set off against the abovementioned quantitative quotas;

Whereas provision should be made for introducing, where certain conditions are fulfilled, quantitative limits on textile products which are included in the import arrangements applicable to Taiwan but for which no quantitative limit has been fixed;

Whereas it should be possible, where it is found that products originating in Taiwan and subject to this Regulation have been imported into the Community in an attempt to evade the provisions of this Regulation, to deduct the quantity of goods concerned from the appropriate quantitative quotas established under this Regulation;

Whereas it should be possible to introduce specific quantitative quotas for products obtained under the outward processing relief arrangements;

Whereas Article 8a of the Treaty lays down that the Community should adopt measures for the progressive establishment of the internal market over a period expiring on 31 December 1992; whereas the internal market comprises of an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured;

Whereas a new system for administering quantitative restrictions should be established based on the principle of a common commercial policy, in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Court of Justice and with a view to establishing the Internal Market on 1 January 1993;

Whereas the procedure for administering import quotas should be based on a system of licences issued by the Member States in line with quantitative criteria established at Community level;

Whereas the administrative procedure to be established must ensure that all applicants have fair access to Community quantitative quotas;

Whereas surveillance or safeguard measures confined to one or more regions rather than the whole of the Community may nevertheless prove necessary; whereas however such measures should be authorized only exceptionally and where no alternative exists; whereas it is necessary, in addition, to ensure that such measures are temporary and cause the minimum of disruption to the operation of the internal market;

Whereas the measures covered by this Regulation are both necessary and appropriate in order to complete the common commercial policy and to safeguard the measures already taken by the Community in the textile and clothing sector;

Whereas the import arrangements at present in force expire on 31 December 1992; whereas it is necessary to provide for transitional arrangements in respect of products shipped before 1 January 1993,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article

1

1. From 1 January 1993 to 31 December 1995 importation into the Community of the products indicated in the categories listed in Annex I shall be governed by the provisions of this Regulation.

2. Classification shall be based on the combined nomenclature (CN).

3. Subject to the provisions of this Regulation, importation into the Community of the textile products referred to in paragraph 1 shall not be subject to quantitative restrictions or to measures having equivalent effect.

Article

2

1. In 1993, 1994 and 1995, importation into the Community of textile products listed in Annex II and originating in Taiwan shall be effected within the limits of quantitative Community quotas laid down in the said Annex.

2. For the purposes of the application of this Regulation, the concept of originating products, as well as the means of monitoring their origin, shall be those defined by the relevant Community rules in force.

3. Subject to the other provisions of this Article, the release for free circulation in the Community of the products referred to in paragraph 1 shall be subject to the presentation of import authorization issued by the Member States' authorities at the importer's request, on presentation by the said importer of an export document conforming to the model in Annex III, issued by the Taiwan Textile Federation.

4. The authorities of the Member State of import shall issue the import authorization in conformity with the rules and procedures established in Regulation (EEC) No 4136/86 (1) as may be subsequently amended and implemented to take account of the realization of the internal market.

Imports authorized in accordance with the provisions of the first subparagraph shall be set off against the quotas established for the year in which the products were loaded on board in Taiwan.

For the purposes of this Regulation, shipment of the goods is considered to have taken place on the date of their loading on to the exporting aircraft, vehicle or vessel.

5. The release after 1 January 1993 for free circulation in the Community of the products covered by this Regulation shall be subject to the important arrangements which were in force before that date, provided that the products were loaded on board in Taiwan before 1 January 1993.

6. Should it appear that additional supplies of a product listed in Annex II are required in the Community, importation of amounts greater than those mentioned in Annex II may be authorized in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9.

7. The definition of quantitative limits laid down in Annex II and of the categories of products to which they apply shall be adapted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9, where this proves necessary to ensure that any subsequent amendment to the combined nomenclature or a decision amending the classification of such products does not result in a reduction of such quantitative limits.

Article

3

1. Imports of textile products in the categories to which this Regulation applies, originating in Taiwan and not listed in Annex II, may be made subject to quantitative limits in the Community where the level of those imports exceeds the level of the total imports of the same products in the preceding year by the following percentages:

- for the categories of products in Group I: 0,4 %,

- for the categories of products in Group II: 2 %,

- for the categories of products in Group III: 6%.

2. Such limits may not be set at an annual level lower than 106 % of the volume of imports during the year preceding that in which imports exceeded the threshold established in accordance with paragraph 1, nor lower than the level established under paragraph 1, nor lower than the 1985 volume of imports of the category of products in question originating in Taiwan.

3. Where it emerges that the conditions for the adoption of quantitative limits are met in one or more regions of the Community, the Commission, after having examined alternative solutions, may exceptionally authorize the application of surveillance or of quantitative measures limited to the regions concerned if it considers that such measures are more appropriate than measures applied throughout the Community.

These measures must be temporary and must disrupt the operation of the internal market as little as possible.

4. The limits referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be set by the Commission in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 9.

5. The provisions for the administration of the quantitative quotas described in Article 2, and in particular Article 2, Article 4 and Article 6 to 8 of this Regulation, shall apply to quantitative limits established under this Article, save for any different provisions adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 9.

Article

4

1. According to the procedure envisaged in Article 9, the Commission may authorize imports in excess of the quantitative quotas laid down by Article 2, either by carrying over unused quantities from the quotas of the preceding year or by advance drawing on the quotas for the following year, provided that such carry-over and advance drawing does not exceed respectively 7 % and 5 % of the quota to be increased.

2. According to the procedure envisaged in Article 9, the Community may authorize the transfer of unused quantities in one quota to another quota within the following limits only:

- between categories 2 and 3 of Group I: 4 % of the quota to which the transfer is made,

- between categories 4 to 8 of Group I: 4 % of the quota to which the transfer is made,

- from the categories in Groups I, II and III to categories in Groups II or III: 5 % of the quota to which the transfer is made.

The table of equivalences applying to the transfers referred to in the first subparagraph is given in Annex I.

3. The cumulative application of the flexibility arrangements set out in the preceding paragraphs may not exceed, with regard to each quota, 12 %.

4. When sudden and prejudicial changes in traditional trade flows in goods under Community quotas referred to in Article 2 (1) result in regional concentration of direct imports into the Community, the Commission will, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9, look for a solution to such problems.

Article 5

1. Where the Commission finds that products originating in Taiwan which are subject to quantitative quotas established under this Regulation have been transhipped, rerouted or otherwise imported into the Community in circumvention of this Regulation and where there is clear proof of such circumvention, the Commission shall, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9, deduct from the quantitative quotas established under this Regulation an amount equivalent to the amount of the products concerned originating in Taiwan.

Article 6

Specific quotas for products of economic outward processing operations fulfilling the conditions set out in Regulation (EEC) No 636/82 (1) may be established, in accordance with the procedure described in Article 9, in respect of the products listed in Annex II or subject to quantitative limits under Article 3.

Article 7

Products referred to in Article 1 which are brought into the customs territory of the Community under inward processing arrangements or under other temporary admission arrangements and re-exported from that territory in the unaltered state or after processing shall not be charged against the quotas as established in articles 2 and 3.

Article 8

1. Products referred to in Article 1 shall not be set off against the quotas referred to in Articles 2 and 3 if they comply with the criteria set out below:

(a) fabrics, woven on handlooms entirely operated by hand or foot, of a traditional variety made by the cottage industry in Taiwan;

(b) clothes or other textile articles of a traditional variety fabricated by the cottage industry in Taiwan, obtained manually from fabrics described above and handsewn without the aid of machinery;

(c) handmade traditional folklore textile products made by the cottage industry in Taiwan.

2. For the application of paragraph 1, products must on importation, be accompanied by a certificate conforming to the model in Annex III and issued by the Taiwan Textile Federation.

Article 9

Where reference is made to the procedure, defined in this Article, the chairman, on his own initiative or at the request of the representative of a Member State, shall refer the matter to the Committee.

The Commission representative, who shall chair the Committee, shall submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The Committee shall deliver an opinion on the draft measures within a period which may be fixed by the chairman depending on the degree of urgency of the matter. The Committee shall decide by the majority specified in Article 148 (2) of the Treaty for the adoption of acts by the Council on a proposal from the Commission. In the case of votes within the Committee, the votes of the Member States' representatives shall be weighted in accordance with the abovementioned Article. The chairman shall not vote.

The Commission shall adopt the measures proposed where they are in conformity with the Committee's opinion.

Where the measures proposed are not in conformity with the Committee's opinion, or where no opinion has been given, the Commission shall submit to the Council without delay a proposal for the measures to be taken. The Council shall act by a qualified majority.

Should the Council fail to take a decision within one month of the date on which the proposal was laid before it, the Commission shall adopt the proposed measures.

Article 10

The chairman may, on his own initiative or at the request of one of the Member States' representatives, consult the Committee about any other matter relating to the operation of this Regulation.

Article 11

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall apply from 1 January 1993 to 31 December 1995.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 29 December 1992.

For the Council

The President

D. HURD

(1) OJ N° L 386, 31. 12. 1986, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 344/92 (OJ N° L 42, 18. 2. 1992, p. 1).

(1) OJ N° L 387, 31. 12. 1986, p. 42.

(1) OJ N° L 76, 20. 3. 1982, p. 1.

ANNEX I

LIST OF PRODUCTS REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 2 (1)

1. When the constitutive material of the products of categories 1 to 114 is not specifically mentioned, these products are to be taken to be made exclusively of wool or of fine hair, of cotton or of man-made fibres.

2. Garments which are not recognizable as being garments for men or boys or as being garments for women or girls are classified with the latter.

3. Where the expression 'babies` garments' is used, this is meant to cover garments up to and including commercial size 86.

GROUP I A

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GROUP I B

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GROUP II A

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GROUP II B

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GROUP III A

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GROUP III B

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ANNEX II

(The complete description of the goods is shown in Annex I)

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Appendix

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