CELEX: 31976R0126
Language: en
Date: 1976-01-20
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 126/76 of 20 January 1976 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota, for unwrought magnesium falling within subheading 77.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff

23 . 1 . 76                       Official Journal of the European Communities                            No L 14/ 1
                                                          I
                                        (Acts whose publication is obligatory)
                                 COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC) No 126/76
                                   <             of 20 January 1976
             opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff
             quota for unwrought magnesium falling within subheading 77.01 A of the
                                             Common Customs Tariff
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                   Whereas the markets in magnesium containing
COMMUNITIES,                                                  99-95 % or more by weight of pure magnesium (here­
                                                              inafter called 'extra-pure magnesium'), in magnesium
                                                              containing 99-8 % or more, but less than 99-95 % , by
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European         weight of pure magnesium (hereinafter called
Economic Community, and in particular Article 113             'unwrought magnesium not in alloy') and in magne­
thereof,                                                      sium containing less than 99-8 % by weight of pure
                                                              magnesium (hereinafter called 'unwrought magnesium
                                                              in alloy') differ considerably ; whereas a distinction
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ,           should therefore be made between these three quali­
                                                              ties and the quota volume under consideration should
                                                              be divided between them :
Whereas, in an exchange of letters dated 30 June
1967, confirmed in an exchange of letters dated 16
April 1973, the European Economic Community has
undertaken , as regards unwrought magnesium falling
within tariff subheading 77.01 A, to open an annual           Whereas, taking into account an overall, provisional
Community tariff quota for a quantity such that               quota volume of 5 500 metric tons, the following
Community requirements for the said goods not                 quantities may be allocated to each quality of the
covered by Community production may be imported               product in question : 600 metric tons for extra-pure
duty-free ;                                                   magnesium, 1 325 metric tons for unwrought magne­
                                                              sium not in alloy and 3 575 metric tons for
                                                              unwrought magnesium in alloy ; whereas these figures
Whereas, in order to establish the volume of the              appear justified both by the former ratios of consump­
Community tariff quota, an assessment must be made            tion of these qualities to total consumption of magne­
of the total consumption by the user industries of the        sium and by the supply possibilities for these qualities
Member States during the quota year and of the                of magnesium within the Community ;
Community production level for the same period ;
whereas even a very rough assessment of total
consumption and production for 1976 would be
highly unreliable since it is at present impossible to
estimate either the volume of unwrought magnesium             Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota
used in certain Member States in the year under               should be ensured for all imports and the rate of levy
consideration or the likely level of Community                for the tariff quota should be applied consistently to
output ; whereas, in any case, there is no likelihood of      all imports until the quota is used up ; whereas, in the
Community production fully meeting demand in the              light of the principles outlined above, a Community
quota year ; whereas the annual quota volume must             tariff arrangement based on an allocation between the
therefore be fixed at an appropriate level , probably         Member States would seem to preserve the Commu­
about 5 500 metric tons ; whereas this assessment is           nity nature of the quota ; whereas, to represent as
based on conservative estimates and later adjustments         closely as possible the actual development of the
are not excluded ; whereas the duties to be applied by         market in the said goods, the allocation should follow
the new Member States under the said tariff quota              proportionately the requirements of the Member
must comply with the relevant provisions of the Act           States calculated both from statistics of imports from
of Accession ;                                                third countries during a representative reference
 ---pagebreak--- No L 14/2                          Official Journal of the European Communities                             23 . 1 . 76
period and from the economic outlook for the quota           — tor un wrought magnesium in alloy :
year in question ;
                                                                  Benelux                                         2-12
Whereas, however, the available statistics of imports             Denmark                                         0-03
into the Member States from third countries which
                                                                  Germany                                       96-50
did not benefit from an equivalent tariff preference              France                                          0-03
under any other preferential arrangements cover only              Ireland                                         0-02
unwrought magnesium in alloy and unwrought magne­                 Italy                                           0-80
sium not in alloy ; whereas, during the last three years          United Kingdom                                 0-50 ;
for which statistics are available, such imports repre­
sented the following percentages of total imports of
the said goods ; whereas, from the information at
present to hand, it would seem that imports of extra­        Whereas, in order to take more accurate account of
pure magnesium are effected almost wholly in the             future import trends for unwrought magnesium not in
United Kingdom :                                             alloy and in alloy, the total quota volume for these
                                                             qualities should be divided into two tranches, the first
— for un wrought magnesium                                   being allocated among the Member States and the
     not in alloy :              1972       1973     1974    second held as a reserve to cover at a later date the
                                                             requirements of Member States who have used up
                                                             their initial shares ; whereas, in order to guarantee
     Benelux                    12-27       6-55   23-18     importers some degree of security, the first tranches
     Denmark                      0-09      0        0       should be fixed at 1 195 metric tons of unwrought
     Germany                    62-42     69-93    52-96     magnesium not in alloy and 3 150 metric tons of
     France                      3-53       9-39     7-11    unwrought magnesium in alloy, the balances being
     Ireland                     0-09       0-01     0-01    held as the reserves ;
     Italy                       0-44       3-06     2-21
     United Kingdom             21-16     11-06    14-53
                    /
                                                             Whereas the initial shares may be used up more or
     for un wrought magnesium                                less quickly ; whereas, therefore, in order to avoid
     in alloy :                  1972       1973     1974
                                                             disrupting supplies, any Member State which has
                                                             almost used up one of its initial shares should draw a
                                                             supplementary share from the relevant reserve ;
     Benelux                    0-32      3-18     1-72      whereas this must be done by each Member State as
     Denmark                    0-06      0        0
                                                             each one of its supplementary shares is almost used
     Germany                   97-51     93-23   94-26
                                                             up, as many times as the reserve allows ; whereais the
     France                     006       0        1-57
                                                             initial and supplementary shares must be valid until
     Ireland                    0-06      0-01     0         the end of the quota period ; whereas this form of
     Italy                      1-87      3-56     2-05      administration requires close collaboration between
     United Kingdom             0-12      0-02     0-39 ;    the Member States and the Commission , and the
                                                             Commission must be in a position to follow the
Whereas in view of these factors and of market fore­         extent to which the quota volume has been used up
                                                             and inform the Member States thereof ;
casts for these products in 1976, it is necessary in the
case of extra-pure unwrought magnesium to allocate
on an experimental basis the quota volume for this
quality to the Community reserve and to provide for          Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a
Member States which have requirements to be met to           Member State has a considerable quantity of one of its
be able to draw upon this reserve in appropriate quan­       initial shares left over, it is essential that it should
tities, and whereas it is necessary to fix for the other     return a significant proportion thereof to the relevant
qualities of magnesium initial percentage shares at          reserve, to prevent a part of one or other quota volume
approximately the following levels :                         from remaining unused in one Member State while it
                                                             could be used in others ;
— for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :
     Benelux                                        16-74
     Denmark                                         0-04    Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium , the
     Germany                                       67-80     Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
     France                                          3-34     Luxembourg are jointly represented by the Benelux
     Ireland                                         0-04     Economic Union , any measure concerning the admin­
     Italy                                           0-33    istration of the shares allocated to that Economic
     United Kingdom                                 11-71     Union may be carried out by one of its members,
 ---pagebreak--- 23 . 1 . 76                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No L 14/3
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                                (a) for un wrought magnesium
                                                                   not in alloy :
                                                                   Benelux                             200     metric tons
                         Article 1
                                                                   Denmark                                0-5 metric ton
                                                                   Germany                             810     metric tons
1 . For the year 1976 a Community tariff quota of                  France                                40    metric tons
5 500 metric tons shall be opened in the Community                 Ireland                                0-5 metric ton
for unwrought magnesium falling within subheading                  Italy                                  4    metric tons
77.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff.
                                                                   United Kingdom                      140     metric tons ;
2.     The volume of the tariff quota shall be divided           (b) for un wrought magnesium
as follows :                                                       in alloy :
                                                                   Benelux                                  67 metric tons
(a) 600 metric tons for unwrought magnesium                        Denmark                                   1 metric ton
     containing 99-95 % or more by weight of pure                  Germany                              3 040  metric tons
     magnesium ('extra-pure magnesium'), intended for              France                                    1 metric ton
     the nuclear industry, under customs or equivalent             Ireland                                   1 metric ton
     administrative control ;                                      Italy                                    25 metric tons
(b) 1 325 metric tons for unwrought magnesium                      United Kingdom                           15 metric tons .
     containing not less than 99-8 % or more, but less       2.      The second tranches, of 1 30 metric tons and 425
     than 99-95 % , by weight of pure magnesium
     ('unwrought magnesium not in alloy') ;                   metric tons respectively, shall be held as Community
                                                             reserves .
(c) 3 575 metric tons for unwrought magnesium
     containing less than 99-8 % by weight of pure                                      Article 4
     magnesium ('unwrought magnesium in alloy')
                                                              1.     If 90 % or more of one of a Member State s
3 . Imports of the said goods shall not be counted            initial shares as specified in Article 3 ( 1 ), or of that
under the tariff quota if they are already free of           share minus the portion returned to the relevant
customs duties under other preferential tariff treat­         reserve where Article 6 is applied, has been used up,
ment.                                                         that Member State shall without delay, by notifying
                                                              the Commission, draw a second share equal to 10 %
4.      Within the tariff quota the Common Customs            of its initial share, where necessary rounded off
Tariff duties shall be totally suspended .                   upwards to the next unit, in so far as permitted by the
                                                              amount of the reserve .
5. Within the tariff quota the new Member States              2.     If, after one or other of its initial shares has been
shall apply duties calculated in accordance with the
                                                              used up, 90 % or more of the second share drawn by
relevant provisions of the Act of Accession .
                                                              a Member State has been used up, that Member State
                                                              shall, in accordance with the conditions laid down in
                         Article 2
                                                              paragraph 1 , draw a third share equal to 5 % of its
                                                              initial share, where necessary rounded off upwards to
                                                              the next unit.
 1.     The volume of 600 metric tons, referred to in
Article 1 (2) (a), allocated to extra-pure unwrought          3.     If, after one or other of its second shares has
magnesium intended for the nuclear industry shall be          been used up, 90 % or more of the third share drawn
allotted to the Community reserve.                            by a Member State has been used up, that Member
                                                              State shall, in accordance with the same conditions,
2.      If in a Member State a need is felt for extra-pure    draw a fourth share equal to the third.
unwrought magnesium , that State shall draw, to the
extent permitted by the amount of the reserve, a suffi­      This process shall continue to apply until the reserves
cient share of the reserve thus set up.                       are used up.
                                                              4. Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 , 2 and 3, a
                                                              Member State may draw shares lower than those fixed
                         Artic!c 3                            in these paragraphs if there are grounds for believing
                                                              that those fixed might not be used up. It shall inform
 1 . A first tranche of each of the volumes provided          the Commission of its reasons for applying this para­
for in Article 1 (2) (b) and (c), which amount to 1 195      graph .
metric tons for unwrought magnesium not in alloy
and 3 1 50 metric tons for magnesium in alloy shall be                                  Article 5
divided among the Member States. The shares, which
are valid up to 31 December 1976, subject to Article          Supplementary shares drawn pursuant to Article 4
6, amount to the following quantities :                       shall be valid until 31 December 1976 .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 14/4                           Official Journal of the European Communities                              23 . 1 . 76
                        Article 6                                                      Article 8
Member States shall return to the reserve, not later           1.    Member States shall take all measures necessary
th^n 1 October 1976 the unused portion of their               to ensure that supplementary shares drawn pursuant
initial shares which, on 15 September 1976, is in             to Article 4 are opened in such a way that imports
excess of 20 % of the initial amount. They may return         may be charged without interruption against their
a greater portion if there are grounds for believing          accumulated shares in the Community quota.
that such portion may not be used in full.
                                                              2.     Member States shall ensure that importers esta­
Member States shall , not later than 1 October 1976,          blished in their territory have free access to the shares
notify the Commission of the total imports of the             allocated to them .
products concerned effected under the Community
quotas up to and including 15 September 1976, and             3 . The extent to which a Member State has used up
where appropriate, the proportion of each of their            its shares shall be determined on the basis of the quan­
initial shares that they are returning to each of the         tities of the said goods entered for home use.
reserves .
                                                                                       Article 9
                        Article 7
                                                              Upon a request from the Commission, Member States
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares            shall inform it of imports actually charged against
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2, 3         their shares.
and 4 and shall , as soon as it has been notified , inform
each State of the extent to which the reserve has been
                                                                                      Article 10
used up.
It shall inform the Member States, not later than 5           The Member States and the Commission shall coop­
October 1976, of the amount still in reserve after            erate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
                                                              observed .
amounts have been returned thereto pursuant to
Article 6 .
                                                                                      Article 11
It shall ensure that the drawing which uses up a
reserve is limited to the balance available and to this       This Regulation shall enter into force on the seventh
end shall specify the amount thereof to the Member            day following its publication in the Official Journal
State making the last drawing.                                of the European Communities.
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 20 January 1976.
                                                                          For the Council
                                                                            The President
                                                                             G. THORN