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

(presented by the Commission)

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

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, agricultural and fishery 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.

Some products, for which suspension is no longer in the Community's economic interests, have been withdrawn from the annex.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 amending Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 temporarily suspending the autonomous common customs tariff duties on certain industrial, agricultural and fishery 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 [...] [...], p. [...]

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 Council Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 temporarily suspending the autonomous common customs tariff duties on certain industrial, agricultural and fishery products [2].

[2] OJ L 158, 29.6.1996, p. 1. Regulation last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1048/2003 (OJ L 161, 30.6.2003, p. 1).

(2) A number of products which are referred to in the said Regulation should be withdrawn from the list in the Annex because it is no longer in the Community's interest to maintain suspension of autonomous common customs tariff duties or because the description needs to be altered in order to take account of technical product developments and economic trends on the market.

(3) Accordingly, products whose description needs to be altered should be regarded as new products.

(4) For ease of comprehension, in view of the large number of amendments coming into force on 1 January 2004, the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 should be replaced by a completely new version with effect from that date.

(5) Taking account of enlargement of the European Community with effect from 1 May 2004, there will be new products added to and others to be deleted from the annex of Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 with effect from that date.

(6) It is therefore appropriate to amend Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 accordingly.

(7) Since this Regulation should apply from 1 January 2004, it should enter into force immediately,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

The Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 shall be replaced by the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 2

The products set out in Annex II to this Regulation are inserted in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96.

Article3

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

Article 1 shall apply with effect from 1 January 2004.

Article 2 shall apply with effect from 1 May 2004.

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

Done at Brussels, [...]

For the Council

The President

ANNEX I

"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) // The suspension shall apply to fish intended to undergo any operation unless they are intended to undergo exclusively one or more of the following operations:

- cleaning, gutting, tailing, heading,

- cutting (excluding filleting or cutting of frozen blocks),

- sampling, sorting,

- labelling,

- packing,

- chilling,

- freezing,

- deep freezing,

- thawing, separation.

The suspension is not allowed for products intended, in addition, to undergo treatment (or operations) qualifying for suspension where such treatment (or operations) is (are) carried out at retail or catering level. The suspension of customs duties shall apply only to fish intended for human consumption.

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

ANNEX II

List of products to add from 1 May 2004 to the list shown in the Annex of Regulation (EC) No 1255/96

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

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, agricultural and fishery 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.

5. 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 and economic trends on the market 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 54 new products. The uncollected duties corresponding to these suspensions, calculated on the basis of expected imports into the requesting Member State for 2004, total MEUR 18.0.

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 MEUR 32.4.

Withdrawal:

24 products have been withdrawn from this annex reflecting the reintroduction of customs duties. This represents an increase of MEUR 6.2 in resources, as calculated from requests for suspension or available statistics (2001).

Estimated cost of this operation

Taking available statistics (2001) as a basis, the impact on the loss of revenue resulting from this Regulation may therefore be estimated at 32.4 - 6.2 = MEUR 26.2 (gross amount, expenses incurred in collection included) for the period 1.1.2004-31.12.2004.

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

6. 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 300 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the implementation of the Community Customs Code.