Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) amending Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 temporarily suspending the autonomous common customs tariff duties on certain industrial and agricultural products

(presented by the Commission)

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

During the third quarter of this year, the Commission, assisted by the Economic Tariff Questions Group, has reviewed all the requests for temporary suspension of autonomous common customs tariff duties presented to it by the Member States, including requests for extending suspensions at present in force.

The attached proposal concerns certain industrial and agricultural products.

Requests for suspension relating to the above products were examined in the light of the criteria set out in the communication from the Commission concerning autonomous tariff suspensions and quotas (see OJ C 128, 25.4.1998, p. 2).

Following this review, the Commission considers that the suspension of duties is justified for the products listed in the Annex to the attached proposal for a Regulation.

Products for which suspension is no longer in the Community's economic interests or which are exempt from duty under GATT have been withdrawn from the annex.

The period of validity of the proposed measure is unspecified, since its purpose is to amend the Annex to Council Regulation (EC) No 1255/96, the period of validity of which is itself unspecified.

Proposal for a

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC)

amending Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 temporarily suspending the autonomous common customs tariff duties on certain industrial and agricultural products

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 26 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission [1],

[1] OJ C

Whereas:

(1) It is in the interest of the Community to suspend partially or totally the autonomous common customs tariff duties for a number of new products not listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 [2].

[2] OJ L 158, 29.6.1996, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1381/99 (OJ L 165, 30.6.1999, p. 1).

(2) The products referred to in the said Regulation for which it is no longer in the Community's interest to maintain suspension of autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties, or which are exempt from duty under GATT or for which it is necessary to amend the description in the light of technical developments, should be withdrawn from the list in the Annex thereto.

(3) Products whose description requires amendment should accordingly be regarded as new products.

(4) In view of the large number of amendments with effect from 1 January 2000, the whole of the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 should be replaced for the sake of clarity,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

The Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 is replaced by the text in the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 2

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

It shall apply with effect from 1 January 2000.

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

Done at Brussels,

For the Council

The President

ANNEX

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(a) // Control of the use for this special purpose shall be carried out pursuant to the relevant Community provisions.

(b) // However, the suspension is not allowed where processing is carried out by retail or catering undertakings.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

1. Title of operation

Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 temporarily suspending the autonomous common customs tariff duties on certain industrial and agricultural products.

2. Budget heading(s) involved

Chapter 12 Article 120.

3. Legal basis

Article 26 of the EC Treaty.

4. Description of operation

Suspension of the common customs tariff duties for the above products.

7. Financial impact

In order to reduce the economic problems arising from the period of validity of previous Regulations, Council Regulation (EC) No 1255/96, now in force, does not have an expiry date.

This proposal contains only the amendments which must be made to the Annex to the existing Regulation in order to take account of the following:

1. new requests for suspension which have been presented and accepted;

2. technical product developments, economic trends on the market and the GATT agreement, resulting in the lifting of certain existing suspensions;

3. amendments to Nomenclature codes.

This time the amendments take the form of a consolidated annex.

Obviously only the amendments described in 1 and 2 have a financial impact.

Addition

This Annex, in addition to the amendments resulting from changes to CN codes, contains 50 new products. The uncollected duties corresponding to these suspensions, calculated on the basis of expected imports into the requesting Member State for 2000, total EUR 9.9 million.

On the basis of the existing statistics for the preceding years, it would appear, however, that this amount must be increased by an average factor, estimated at 1.8, to take account of imports into other Member States using the same suspensions. This means a loss of revenue of some EUR 17.9 million.

Withdrawal:

67 products have been withdrawn from this annex reflecting the reintroduction of customs duties. This represents an increase of EUR 50.1 million in resources, as calculated from requests for suspension or available statistics (1998).

Estimated cost of this operation

Taking available statistics (1998) as a basis, the impact on the loss of revenue resulting from this Regulation may therefore be estimated at 17.9 - 50.1 = EUR -32.2 million, then a decrease of loss of revenue, with a total loss estimated for 2000 of 629.3 - 32.2 = EUR 597.1 million.

The shortfall in traditional own resources will have to be made up by the Member States by topping up the GNP component.

8. Fraud prevention measures

Checks on the end-use of some of the products covered by this Council Regulation will be carried out in accordance with Articles 291 to 304 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the implementation of the Community Customs Code.