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 first quarter of this year, the Commission, assisted by the Economic Tariff Questions Group, has reviewed requests for temporary suspension of autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties presented to it by the Member States, including certain requests amending existing suspensions.

The attached proposal concerns certain industrial products.

The suspension requests relating to these products were examined in the light of the criteria set out in the communication from the Commission to the Council and the Member States concerning autonomous tariff suspensions and quotas (OJ C 128, 25.4.1998, p. 2).

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

For the products listed in Annex II, on the other hand, it believes suspension is no longer in the Community's economic interests.

The two Annexes to this Regulation thus correspond respectively, to the list of products for which suspension is proposed, or for which the wording (including the nomenclature code) has to be changed, and the list of products removed from the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96.

Amendments to the description of certain products listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96, where they have become necessary, have been taken into account as follows:

- addition of the nomenclature code for the product (listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96) in Annex II,

- addition of the new amended product description in Annex I.

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) Whereas 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 [1], as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2797/98 [2];

[1] OJ L 158, 29.6.1996, p. 1.

[2] OJ L 352, 29.12.1998, p. 1.

(2) Whereas the products referred to in Regulation (EC) No 1255/96, for which it is no longer in the Community's interest to maintain suspension of autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties or for which it is necessary to amend the description in the light of technical developments, must be withdrawn from the list in the Annex thereto;

(3) Whereas, for the sake of clarity, products whose description require amendment should be regarded as new products,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

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

(1) The products set out in Annex I to this Regulation are inserted.

(2) The products for which the codes are set out in Annex II to this Regulation are deleted.

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 July 1999.

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

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ANEXO II - BILAG II - ANHANG II - ÐÁÑÁÑÔÇÌÁ II - ANNEX II - ANNEXE II - ALLEGATO II - BIJLAGE II - ANEXO II - LIITE II - BILAGA II

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FINANCIAL STATEMENT

1. Title of operation

Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 temporarily suspending the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain industrial and agricultural products.

2. Budget heading involved

Chapter 12, Article 120.

3. Legal basis

Article 26 of the EC Treaty.

4. Description of operation

Suspension of the CCT 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, economic trends on the market, resulting in the lifting of certain existing suspensions;

3. amendments to Nomenclature codes.

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 1999, total EUR 10 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 18 million.

Withdrawal:

Four products have been withdrawn from this Annex reflecting the reintroduction of customs duties. This represents an increase of EUR 1.3 million in resources, as calculated from requests for suspension or available statistics (1996).

Result:

For the coming year, in the light of the approximate calculations and taking available statistics (1996) as a basis, the impact on the loss of revenue resulting from this Regulation may therefore be estimated at 18 - 1.3 = EUR 16.7 million, then an increase of loss of revenue, with a total estimated loss of EUR 612.6 million + EUR 16.7 million = EUR 629.3 million for 1999 which corresponds to the suspensions granted under the amended Regulation.

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