Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) temporarily suspending all or some of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products (1997)
Date: 1996-11-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: CCT duties, fishery product, suspension of customs duties

COMMISSION  OF THE  EUROPEAN  COMMUNITIES 

Brussels,  14.11  1996 
COM(96)577 final 

Proposal  for  a 

COUNCIL  REGULATION  (EC) 

temporarily suspending all or some of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff 

duties on certain fishery products (1997) 

(presented  by  the  Commission) 

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

1.  During the third quarter of this year, the Commission, assisted by the Economic Tariff  Problems 
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. 

2.  The attached proposal concerns a number of fishery products. 

For industrial products, the proposals for Regulations temporarily suspending the autonomous 
Common Customs Tariff  duties are also being prepared. 

3.  The requests for suspension relating to the above 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 (see OJ C 235, 13.9.1989, 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 of Regulation. 

4.  As seen from Article  1  of the above-mentioned proposal of Regulation, the period of validity of the 

proposed measure is  12 months. 

Ï 

' 

^Proposal"  fera 

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 

/96 

of 

1996 

temporarily suspending some or all of the autonomous Common Customs  Tariff 
duties on certain fishery products (1997) 

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 28 thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, 

Whereas the Community relies at present on imports from third countries for supplies of certain  fishery 
products; whereas it is in the interest of the Community to suspend partially or totally the customs duties 
for these products;  whereas, in order to avoid endangering the prospects for developing the production of 
competitive products in the Community while ensuring that the industries concerned receive the necessary 
supplies, it is advisable to adopt these suspension measures only from 1  January to 31 December  1997, 

Whereas it is for the Community to decide to suspend these autonomous duties, 

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 

Article 1 
1. From  1  January to 31 December  1997 the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on the products 
listed in the Annex are hereby suspended at the level indicated for each product. 

2. Imports of these products shall qualify  for the suspension referred to in paragraph  1  only provided that 
the free-at-frontier  price laid down by the Member States, in accordance with Article 22 of 
Council Regulation (EEC) No 3759/92 of  17 December  1992 on the common organization of the market 
in fishery and aquaculture products,1 is not lower than the reference price fixed or to be fixed by the 
Community for the products or categories of products in question. 

This Regulation shall enter into force on 1  January  Ï997. 

Article 2 

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

Done at 

, 

For the Council 
The President 

1 OJ No L 388, 31.12.1992, p.  1, as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1891/93 of 12.7.1993 (OJ No L 172, 
15.7.1993, p.l). 

CN  c o de  &  TARIC 

Description 

IMJNEX 

Rate of 
autonomous 
duty (%) 

0001 

0302 65 20 
0303 75 20 
ex0304 10 98 60 
ex0304  90 97 31 

0002 

ex0302 69 99 30 
ex0303 79 96 30 

Dogfish of the species  Squalus 

acanthias, 

fresh, chilled  or  frozen 

Sturgeons, fresh, chilled or frozen, for processing 

(a) (b) 

0003 

ex0302 69 99 40 

Lump fish  (Cyclopterus 
processing  (a) 

lumpus)  with roe, fresh or chilled, for 

0004 

ex0302 69 99 50 
ex0303 79 96 40 

Red Snapper  {Lutjanus 
processing 

(a) (c) 

purpureus), 

fresh, chilled or  frozen, for 

0005 

ex0302 70 00 11 
ex0302 70 00 91 

Hard  fish roes, fresh or chilled 

0006 

ex0303 10 00 10 

Pacific salmon  (Oncorhynchus 
frozen and headless, for the 
processing  industry for manufacture into pastes or spreads  (a) 

spp.), 

0008 

ex0304 20 55 34 
ex0304 20 58 44 
ex0304  90 47 30 

0009 

ex0304 20 85 10 
ex0304  90 61 10 

Fillets and meat of hake of the genus  Merluccius, 
species  Merluccius  merluccius,  Merluccius 
hubbsi, 
(a) (b) 

in the form of industrial blocks, frozen, for processing 

excluding  the 

bilinearis 

and  Merluccius 

Fillets and meat of Alaska pollack  (Theragra 
form of industrial blocks, frozen, for processing 

chalcogramma), 

in the 

(a)  (b) 

8.5 

8.5 

0010 

ex0305 20 00 11 
ex0305 20 00 19 

Hard  fish roes, salted or in brine 

0011 

ex0306 19 90 10 
ex0306 29 90 10 

Krill  for processing  (a) 

0022 

exl604  11 00 20 
exl604 20 10 20 

Pacific salmon  [Oncorhynchus 
manufacture  into pastes or spreads  (a) 

spp.), 

for the processing  industry for 

0023 

exl604  30 90 10 

Hard  fish roes, washed, cleaned of adherent organs and  simply salted 
or in brine, for processing  (a) 

0024 

exl605 10 00 11 
exl605 10 00 19 

brevipes), 

Crabs of the species  'King'  (Paralithod.es 
{Paralithodes 
'Snow'  (Chionoecetes 
stone'  {Neolithodes 
serrata), 
shelled, whether or not frozen, in immediate packings of a net 
content of 2 kg or more 

antarctica, 
simply boiled  in water and 

spp.),  'Red'  {Geryon  quinquedens),  'Rough 

'Kegani'  (Erimacrus 

'Blue'  [Portunus 

isenbecki), 

asperrimus), 

camchaticus), 

Lithodes 

'Mud' 

spp.), 

'Hanasaki' 

'Queen' and 

(Scylla 

(a) 

(b) 

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

sT 

1.  Budget heading involved  : Chapter  12 Article 120 

FINANCIAL STATEMENT 

2.  Title of operation  : Proposal for a Council Regulation temporarily suspending all or some of the 

autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products (1997). 

3.  Legal basis  : Article 28 of the EC Treaty. 

4.  Objective:  Suspension of the CCT duties for the above products. 

5.  Measures aimed at prevention and protection:  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. 

6.  Cost : 

In  relation  to  the  previous  year  (for  which  the  cost  of  the  entire  operation  had  been  estimated  at 
ECU 39 000 000), the following is proposed: 
- two products should be removed from the list of suspensions (CN 03038000 and  16053030) because 
for  these  products  the  customs  duties  were  suspended  definitively  under  the  negotiations  on 
Article XXIV.6 of the GATT; 
- the rate of the duty for "fillets  and meat of hake" should be changed from  10% to 8.5%. 

It is difficult  to estimate the cost owing to the lack of recent  Community  statistics  and the  accession 
of three new Member States for which no economic details are at present available. 

However, the present estimate, taking into account: 
- the most recent known EUROSTAT statistics (1994); 
- the period of validity of this Regulation (1.1.1997/31.12.1997); 
- the presence of three new Member States, the impact of which is estimated at about  15%,  produces 
an  increase  of  ECU 880 000,  corresponding  to  the  products  removed  from  the  list,  and  a  loss  of 
ECU 445 000 corresponding to the  1.5% decrease in the rate of duty for  "fillets  and meat of hake". 
This represents a ECU 435 000 reduction of duties not collected. 

Estimated cost of the present operation (1.1.1997/3112.1997). 

The  uncollected  duties  generated  by  the  proposed  operation  can  therefore  be  estimated  as  costing 
ECU  38 565 000,  i.e.  ECU 435 000  less  than  ECU  39  000  000 not  collected  under  the  previous 
operation (1  1.1996/31.12.1996). 

REMARK 

The increase from the removal of the two products mentioned above applies only to this operation 
since the customs duties are always suspended under another operation.  Seen overall, the 
amendments to the existing regulation would bring a total loss of revenue of ECU 445 000. 

€ 

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ISSN0254-1475 

COM(96) 577 final 

DOCUMENTS 

EN 

02  03  01 

Catalogue number  : CB-CO-96-577-EN-C 

ISBN 92-78-11513-4 

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