COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) 2021/1203

of 19 July 2021

amending Regulation (EU) 2020/1706 as regards inclusion of autonomous Union tariff quotas for certain fishery products

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 31 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Whereas:

(1) Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1706 (1) opens and provides for the management of autonomous Union tariff quotas for certain fishery products for the period 2021-2023. Appropriate volumes have been decided for each tariff quota to ensure an adequate supply to the Union industry for that period.

(2) Supplies of certain fishery products in the Union currently depend on imports from third countries. In the last decades, the Union has become more dependent on imports to meet its consumption of fishery products. In order not to jeopardise the Union production of fishery products and to ensure an adequate supply to the Union processing industry, import duties should be suspended for Patagonian squid, herring preserved in brine, frozen herrings, frozen fillets and flaps of herrings, fillets of redfish and various species of frozen fish within tariff quotas of an appropriate volume.

(3) The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (2) between the Union and the United Kingdom (the TCA) provisionally applies since 1 January 2021. The TCA provides for a duty-free quota-free access of originating fishery products. However, the British overseas countries and territories (OCTs) are no longer associated with the Union and no longer enjoy tariff reductions for exports of fishery products to the Union.

(4) Moreover, the additional protocols with Iceland (3) and Norway (4) providing for quotas for certain fish and fishery products expired on 30 April 2021. As negotiations for new quotas were not concluded before the expiry of the additional protocols, that might result in a shortage of duty-free fishery products for processing in the Union.

(5) Regulation (EU) 2020/1706 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(6) In order to remedy the consequences of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union as regards the loss of preferential status of OCTs and to remedy the consequences of the expiry of the additional protocols with Norway and Iceland, this Regulation should enter into force as a matter of urgency and should apply, with retroactive effect, from 1 January 2021,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1 Regulation (EU) 2020/1706 is amended as follows: (1) point (b) of Article 4(4) is replaced by the following: ‘(b) cutting into rings and cutting into strips for materials under CN codes 0307 43 35, 0307 43 91, 0307 43 92 and 0307 43 99;’; (2) the Annex is amended in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 2 This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It shall apply from 1 January 2021.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 19 July 2021. For the Council The President J. PODGORŠEK

(1) Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1706 of 13 November 2020 opening and providing for the management of autonomous Union tariff quotas for certain fishery products for the 2021-2023 period (OJ L 385, 17.11.2020, p. 3).

(2) Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic and Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part (OJ L 149, 30.4.2021, p. 10).

(3) Additional Protocol to the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Republic of Iceland (OJ L 141, 28.5.2016, p. 18).

(4) Additional Protocol to the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Norway (OJ L 141, 28.5.2016, p. 22).