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.

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which suspension is no longer in the Community's economic interests or which are exempt from duty under GATT have been withdrawn from the annex.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

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,

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 [1].

[1] OJ L 158, 29.6.1996, p.1. Regulation last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1297/2000 (OJ L 153, 26.6.2000, 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(2) A number of products which are referred to in the said Regulation should be withdrawn from the list in the Annex because it is no longer in the Community's interest to maintain suspension of autonomous common customs tariff duties, or because they are exempt from duty under GATT or because the description needs to be altered in the light of technical developments.

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

(4) For the sake of administrative rationalisation and security for the users, the fishery products should be included in this Regulation.

(5) For ease of comprehension, in view of the large number of amendments coming into force on 1 January 2001, the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 should be replaced by a completely new version.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

The Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 is amended as follows:

1. In the title and the forth "whereas" the words "industrial and agricultural products" are to be replaced by "industrial, agricultural and fishery products".

2. The Annex shall be replaced by the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 2

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

It shall apply with effect from 1 January 2001.

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) // 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) // Imports of these products shall only qualify for the suspension if the declared customs value is not lower than the reference price fixed or to be fixed in accordance with Article29 of CouncilRegulation(EC)No104/2000 of 17December1999 on the common organisation of the market in fishery and aquaculture products (OJ L 17, 21.1.2000, p. 22).

(d) // 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, 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.

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 25 new products. The uncollected duties corresponding to these suspensions, calculated on the basis of expected imports into the requesting Member State for 2001, total MEUR 7.2.

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 12.9.

Also the inclusion of 12 fishery products in this Regulation entails an extra loss of MEUR 9, this means a loss of revenue of some MEUR 21.9.

Withdrawal:

Four products have been withdrawn from this annex reflecting the reintroduction of customs duties. This represents an increase of MEUR 0.6 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 21.9 - 0.6 = MEUR 21.3, then an increase of loss of revenue, with a total loss estimated for 2001 of 596.7 + 21.3 = MEUR 618.

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.