WRITTEN QUESTION E-0453/00

by Karin Jöns (PSE) to the Council

(24 February 2000)

Subject: Regulation (EC) temporarily suspending some or all of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products

In Council Regulation (EC) No 2822/98(1) of 21 December 1998, customs duties on a range of fisheries products (sturgeon, lump fish, various crab species, etc) were fixed at zero per cent with effect from

1 January 1999. On the other hand, customs duties on dogfish (squalus acanthias fresh, chilled or frozen) were fixed at six per cent, and on fillets and meat of Alaska pollack (theragra chalcogramma in the form of industrial block for processing) at four per cent.

1. What is the unreduced rate of customs duty on imports of other fishery products?

2. Why was the rate for Alaska pollack, which is caught almost exclusively off Pacific coastal states (USA, Canada, Russia, China, Korea, Japan), making the EU dependent on imports, not also fixed at zero per cent in common with the other fishery products covered by the regulation?

3. Why was the rate for Alaska pollack fixed at four per cent?

4. Why was the rate for dogfish not also fixed at zero per cent in common with the other fishery products covered by the regulation? It should be noted that dogfish has to be extensively imported into the EU from the USA and Canada because it is found only in small quantities in the waters between Ireland and Britain?

5. Why was the rate for dogfish fixed at six per cent?

(1) OJ L 351, 29.12.1998, p. 9.

Reply

(18 May 2000)

Council Regulation (EC) No 2822/98 temporarily suspending some or all of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products was adopted on 21 December 1998 as the same time as the Regulation opening and providing for the administration of autonomous Community tariff quotas for certain fishery products.

The proposals for those Regulations were examined together with a view to developing a compromise solution acceptable both to those Member States that favour the interests of fishermen and to those that defend the interests of the processing industries.

1. The Common Customs Tariff lays down the rates applicable. In the case of fishery products, these are between 2 % for salmon and 25 % for sardines, mackerel, etc. They were published(1).

2. For certain products, Community production is non-existent, low or insufficient, so the processing industry has to find sources of supply on markets outside the Community. In that event the Community has to take the tariff measures necessary to ensure that its industry remains competitive with those of non-member countries.

The Community's tariff rules are closely linked to its trade policy, and are regularly adapted in line with developments on the international market and the supply possibilities that arise out of, in this case, fisheries agreements.

3. The 18 % rates applicable to Alaska pollack and to dogfish have been suspended at 4 % and 6 % respectively in the light of those considerations.

4. As regards the year 2000, the rates applicable to fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates were published(2).

5. On 17 December 1999 the Council adopted a new Regulation suspending some or all of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products. That Regulation was applicable from 1 January 2000 and was published(3). The rates adopted for fillets and meat of Alaska pollack and for meat of dogfish were suspended at 3,5 % and 6 % respectively.

(1) OJ L 292, 30.10.1998, pp. 47 and 62.

(2) OJ L 278, 28.10.1999, pp. 47 to 66.

(3) OJ L 336, 29.12.1999.