98/562/EC: Commission Decision of 29 September 1998 on the statistical surveillance within the Community of exports of secondary copper raw materials (notified under document number C(1998) 2739) (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 1998-09-29
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: copper, export, statistics

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II

(Acts whose publication is not obligatory)

COMMISSION

COMMISSION DECISION

of 29 September 1998

on the statistical surveillance within the Community of exports of secondary
copper raw materials

(notified under document number C(1998) 2739)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(98/562/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2603/69
of 20 December 1969 establishing common rules for
exports (1), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 3918/
91 (2), and in particular Article 5 thereof,

After consulting the committee set up by Article 4 of
Regulation (EEC) No 2603/69,

(1) Whereas Community refiners and fabricators have
been, for some time, experiencing supply difficul-
ties over the whole spectrum of copper materials;
whereas the copper scrap market in particular is
characterised by scarcity and is, consequently,
highly competitive and inelastic on the supply side;
whereas the Community industry is facing a signif-
icant decline in its room for manoeuvre in relation
to the amount of financial return it can expect
from refining copper from scrap metal;

(2) Whereas exports of copper scrap were subject, until
1990, to production of a prior export licence to be
issued by the
the
Member States; whereas, since then, no similar
arrangement has been in force;

authorities of

appropriate

(3) Whereas

the difficulties of

the Community
industry in finding access to secondary copper raw
materials started to increase following the lifting of
that commercial policy measure;

(4) Whereas

the Community industry claims

that
those difficulties are due to overbidding practices
on the Community and world markets, mainly by
Chinese, Indian and South Korean buyers, which
are rendered possible by the differentiated tariff
structure of those countries; whereas it submitted to
the Commission information designed to demon-
strate the existence of those practices;

(5) Whereas the existence of alternative sources of
supply, in particular in eastern Europe, is likely to
be short term as local industry increases demand
reinforce controls and
and national authorities
export restrictions;

following receipt of
by

the information
(6) Whereas,
provided
the
the Community
Commission launched an examination concerning
the conditions under which the international and
Community copper scrap supply markets are oper-
in the Official
ating by a notice published (3)
Journal of the European Communities; whereas

industry,

(1) OJ L 324, 27. 12. 1969, p. 25.
(2) OJ L 372, 31. 12. 1991, p. 31.

(3) OJ C 148, 22. 5. 1996, p. 4.

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this examination has shown that the tariff differen-
tiation applicable in India, South Korea and the
People’s Republic of China between secondary
copper raw materials and refined copper appears to
be likely to confer a competitive advantage on
those countries’ producers and to disrupt copper
scrap supply markets;

(7) Whereas, however, there does not appear to be any
inter-
violation by the countries concerned of
national trade rules, whether multilateral or laid
down in bilateral agreements; whereas the Chinese
tariff structure is the subject of ongoing nego-
tiations in the perspective of future accession of the
People’s Republic of China to the World Trade
Organisation;

(8) Whereas bilateral consultations with Indian and
South Korean authorities are ongoing or will be
started as soon as possible in order to find a mutu-
ally acceptable solution to this problem;

(9) Whereas, in parallel with those consultations, it is
desirable to follow closely the trend of exports of
the products concerned; whereas an a posteriori
monitoring system should be put in place in order
to gather more specific information with a view to
assessing the possible causal
link between the
abovementioned tariff policies and the adverse
effects on the Community industry; whereas such a
system would achieve the twofold objective of
providing the Commission with a deeper insight
into the market in question in the shortest possible
time as well as sending to the third countries’
authorities
industry
and to the Community
involved a signal on the importance attached by
the Community to this matter;

(10) Whereas a duration of two years seems to be the
most appropriate for getting a comprehensive and

reliable picture of the market trends; whereas the
system envisaged would be simple to adopt and to
administer and it would not
impose any extra
burdens on Community exporters or require them
to provide any information additional to that which
they are already required to provide,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The exports to all countries of the secondary copper raw
materials listed in Annex I shall be subject to statistical
surveillance.

Article 2

Member States shall communicate to the Commission, in
respect of each calendar month, not later than six weeks
after the end of the month in question, the data listed in
the form set out in Annex II.

The Commission will, on a quarterly basis, provide infor-
mation to the Member States on the data received.

Article 3

This Decision shall apply from l October 1998 for two
years.

Article 4

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 29 September 1998.

For the Commission

Leon BRITTAN

Vice-President

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ANNEX I

PRODUCTS PLACED UNDER STATISTICAL SURVEILLANCE (1)

Copper waste and scrap (CN 7404 00)

Refined copper waste and scrap (CN 7404 00 10)

Bright No 1 copper wire (Barley): No 1 bare, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire, not smaller than 1,3 mm.

No 1 copper wire (Berry): clean, untinned, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire and cable, not smaller than
1,3 mm, free of burnt wire which is brittle.

No 2 copper wire (Birch): miscellaneous, unalloyed copper wire having a nominal 96 % copper content
(minimum 94 %).

No 2 copper wire nodules (Cobra): No 2 unalloyed copper wire scrap nodules, chopped or shredded,
minimum 97 % copper.

No 2 copper (Cliff): miscellaneous, unalloyed copper scrap having a nominal 96 % copper content
(minimum 94 %).

Light copper (Dream): miscellaneous, unalloyed copper scrap having a nominal 92 % copper content
(minimum 88 %) as determined by electrolytic assay, sheat copper, gutters, downspouts, kettles, boilers, and
similar scrap.

Copper-bearing scrap (Drove): miscellaneous copper-containing skimmings, grindings, ashes, irony brass
copper, residues and slags. Free of insulated wires.

Copper-zinc base alloy (brass) waste and scrap (CN 7404 00 91)

New yellow brass rod ends (Noble): new, clean rod ends from free turning brass rods or forging rods.

Yellow brass rod turnings (Night): strictly rod turnings.

Yellow brass scrap (Honey): brass castings, rolled brass, rod brass, tubing and miscellaneous yellow brasses,
including plated brass.

Mixed unsweated auto radiators (Ocean): mixed automobile radiators, to be free of aluminium radiators,
and iron finned radiators.

New brass clippings (Label): cuttings of new unleaded yellow brass sheet or plate.

Brass shell cases without primers (Lace): clean fired 70/30 brass shell cases free of primers and any other
foreign material.

Brass small arms and rifle shell, clean fired (Lake): clean fired 70/30 brass shells free of bullets, iron and
any other foreign material.

Other copper alloy waste and scrap (CN 7404 00 99)

Composition or red brass (Ebony): red brass scrap, valves, machinery bearings and other machinery parts,
including miscellaneous castings made of copper, tin, zinc, and/or lead.

Red brass composition turnings (Enerv): turning from red brass composition material.

New cupro nickel clips and solids (Dandy): clean, new, segregated cupro nickel tube, pipe, sheet, plate, or
other wrought solid forms.

(1) The data transmitted to the Commission shall be at CN level. Where possible, a more detailed description of the
exported goods may be provided on the basis of the denominations/definitions listed below (commonly used by the
business and contained in the ‘Guidelines for non-ferrous scrap — scrap specifications' issued by the Institute of scrap
recycling Industries in 1994).

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Cupro nickel solid (Daunt): old, and/or new, segregated cupro nickel tube pipe, sheet, plate, or other
wrought solid forms.

Soldered cupro nickel solids (Delta): segregated cupro nickel solids, soldered, brazed or sweated.

Cupro nickel spinnings, turnings, borings (Decoy): clean segregated cupro nickel spinnings, turnings, or
borings.

Irony copper waste and scrap (classified under CN 7204 29 00)

Electronic and/or
7112 10 00/7112 20 00/7112 90 00)

telephonic waste and scrap containing copper

(classified under CN

Copper ash and residues (CN 2620 30 00)

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ANNEX II

FORM RELATING TO EXPORTS OF SECONDARY COPPER RAW MATERIALS

Data to be communicated for the attention of:

European Commission

Directorate General I (External Relations: Commercial Policy and Relations with North America, the Far East,
Australia and New Zealand)

Mr Paolo Garzotti, DG I/E.3

DM24, 05/104

Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200

B-1049 Brussels

Fax (32-2) 295 73 31

E-mail: Paolo.Garzotti@dg1.cec.be

Exports in the month of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 . .

A. Total exports:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tonnes.

B. Of which:

(specify the CN code, tonnage, value, country of destination and country of origin, broken down by
transaction)

Exporter

Country of
destination

Country of
origin

Description

CN code

Value
(ECU)

Tonnes

This information will be forwarded directly to Unit I/E.3, where possible in computerised format. Those
administrations for which a computerised format is not an available option will be able to use the structure
of the above model form.

C. Other.