WRITTEN QUESTION No. 836/99 by Daniel VARELA SUANZES- CARPEGNA Slate imports into the EU
Date: 1999-04-07
Institutions: European Parliament, VARELA SUANZES-CARPEGNA
Subjects: customs duties, earths and stones, generalised preferences, import (EU)













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91999E0836

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 836/99 by Daniel VARELA SUANZES- CARPEGNA Slate imports into the EU  


Official Journal C 370 , 21/12/1999 P. 0122 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-0836/99by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE) to the Commission(7 April 1999)Subject: Slate imports into the EUIn its reply to my Written Question E-1580/98(1), the Commission provided figures on Community slate imports from developing countries in 1996.Can the Commission list all the countries which have exported slate to the EU in 1997 and 1998 and give details of the volume of exports for each of them, and of the level of customs duty to which each of those Community imports was subject?Can the Commission say what is the significance of the classification of those import figures as eligible and preferential?Answer given by Mr Marín on behalf of the Commission(6 May 1999)In 1997 Community imports of slate (combined nomenclature codes 6803 00 10 and 6803 00 90, Commission Regulation (EC) 2261/98 of 26 October 1998 amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff(2)) from non-Community countries totalled 30 263 tonnes, worth [fmxeuro] 13,6 million.A detailed list of the imports broken down by exporting country is being sent directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat.In 1997 the full rate of import duty on slate from non-Community countries was 2,5 % (2,1 % in 1998 and 1,7 % in 1999).Under Council Regulation (EC) 3281/94 of 19 December 1994 applying a four-year scheme of generalized tariff preferences (1995 to 1998) in respect of certain industrial products originating in developing countries(3), slate is classified as a non-sensitive product (Part IV of Annex I) for which customs tariff duties are suspended in their entirety (Article 2(4))where the slate originates in one of the countries qualifying for the scheme (Annex III). The origin of products is determined under Council Regulation (EEC) 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code(4).The countries eligible for the generalised preference scheme that export slate to the Community are Argentina, Bhutan, Brazil, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, Syria and Thailand.Under the graduation mechanism (Article 5(1) of Regulation 3281/94), on 1 January 1996 the preferential margin was abolished for China, which is now subject to the standard non-Community rate of duties.Imports of a value of [fmxeuro] 5,87 million were eligible to benefit from the generalised preference scheme. Of these, imports worth [fmxeuro] 3,49 million actually were imported under the scheme.A preferential rate of 0 % is applied to countries under preferential agreements other than the generalised preference scheme. These countries are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Syria, and Turkey. Statistics on imports from countries outside the generalised preference scheme do not distinguish between imports benefiting from a preferential rate of duties and those to which the full rate is applied.(1) OJ C 402, 22.12.1998, p. 145.(2) OJ L 292, 30.10.1998.(3) OJ L 348, 31.12.1994.(4) OJ L 302, 19.10.1992.