CELEX: 31973R3591
Language: en
Date: 1973-12-28 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 3591/73 of the Council of 28 December 1973 on the opening, allocation and administration of a Community tariff quota for unwrought magnesium falling within subheading No 77.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff

31 . 12. 73                        Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 365 /39
                                REGULATION (EEC) No 3591/73 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                 of 28 December 1973
              on the opening, allocation and administration of a Community tariff quota for unwrought
                 magnesium falling within subheading No 77.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,                      output which is likely to increase considerably as a
                                                               result of extensions to existing plant in the
                                                               Community ; whereas there is in any case no
                                                               likelihood of Community production meeting the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
European Economic Community, and in particular                 demand; whereas the annual quota volume must
 Article 113 thereof;                                          therefore be fixed at an appropriate level, probably
                                                                about 10 250 metric tons ; whereas this assessment is
                                                               based on conservative estimates and later adjustments
                                                               are not excluded;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission;
Whereas, in an exchange of letters of 30 June 1967,           "Whereas the market in magnesium containing not
 confirmed in an exchange of letters of 16 April 1973          less than 99-8 % by weight of pure magnesium
the European Economic Commiinity has undertaken,                (hereinafter called 'unwrought magnesium not in
 as regards unwrought magnesium falling within tariff          alloy') and in magnesium containing less than 99-8 %
subheading No 77.01 A, to open an annual                       by weight of pure magnesium (herein after called
Community tariff quota for a quantity such that                'unwrought magnesium in alloy') differ considerably;
                                                              whereas a distinction should therefore be made
Community requirements for the said goods not
covered by Community production may be imported               between the two qualities and the quota volume
duty-free ;                                                    under consideration should be divided between them ;
Whereas, under Article 39 of the Act of Accession,
the new Member States must on 1 January 1974                  Whereas in the case of unwrought magnesium not in
make the first move towards alignment of their                alloy, and assuming a quota volume of 10 250 metric
national tariffs on the Common Customs Tariff as              tons, the need to import some 1 000 metric tons from
regards the said goods ; whereas, therefore, the needs        third countries has been established; whereas this
of those Member States for imports from third                  figure is justified both by the former ratio of
countries should from that date onwards be covered            consumption of this quality to total consumption of
by the tariff quota in question during the period             magnesium and by the short term outlook for
thereof; whereas these requirements may not include           Community production of this quality of magnesium;
imports to which some other preferential tariff
treatment may apply; whereas the duties to be
applied by the new Member States under the said
tariff quota must be in conformity with the relevant          Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota
provisions of the Act of Accession ;                          should be ensured for all importers and the rate of
                                                              levy for the tariff quota should be applied
                                                              consistently to all imports until the quota is used up ;
Whereas in order to establish the volume of the               whereas, in the light of the principles outlined above,
Community tariff quota an assessment must be made             a Community tariff arrangement based on an
of the total consumption by the user industries of the        allocation between the Member States would seem to
Member States during the tariff year and of the               preserve the Community nature of the quota ;
Community production level for the same period;               whereas to represent as closely as possible the actual
whereas even a very rough assessment of total                 development of the market in the said goods the
consumption and production for 1974 will be highly            allocation should follow proportionately the
unreliable since it is at present impossible to estimate      requirements of the Member States calculated both
either the volume of unwrought magnesium used in              from statistics of imports from third countries during
certain Member States in the year under                       a representative reference period and from the
consideration or the likely level of Community                economic outlook for the tariff year in question ;
 ---pagebreak---  No L 365 /40                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                  31 . 12. 73
"Whereas, however, the available statistics of imports             Ireland                  0-03
from third countries into the new Member States to
which no equivalent tariff preference was applied                  Italy                    0-40
 under any other preferential arrangements only cover              United Kingdom          28-40
 the year 1972 and the first few months of 1973 ;
whereas during the year 1972 such imports by each
 of the Member States represented the following
 percentages of total Community imports of the said           — for unwrought magnesium in alloy:
 goods; whereas, for the year 1973, on the basis of the
 most recent forecasts by the Member States, which                 Benelux                  1-31
 have been confirmed by the imports statistics for the
                                                                   Denmark                  0-03
 first few months, these percentages are as follows :
                                                                   Germany                 96-82
 — for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :                          France                    0-03
                            1972     1973                          Ireland                   0-02
      Benelux              11-63    16-08                           Italy                    1-30
      Denmark                0-08     0-06                          United Kingdom           0-49
      Germany              59-15    55-64
      France                 3-61     3-09                    Whereas, to take account more accurately of future
                                                              import trends for the said goods, the total quota
      Ireland                0-04     0-03                    volume for each quality of unwrought magnesium
                                                               should bfe divided into two tranches, the first being
      Italy                  0-42     0-37                     allocated among the Member States and the second
                                                              held as a reserve to cover at a later date the
      United Kingdom       25-07    24-73
                                                               requirements of Member States who have used up
                                                               their initial shares ; whereas to give importers some
  — for unwrought magnesium in alloy:                          certainty the first tranches should be fixed at 850
                                                               metric tons of unwrought magnesium not in alloy
                                      1-12
                                                               and 8 250 metric tons of unwrought magnesium in
      Benelux                0-32
                                                               alloy, the balances being held as the reserves ;
      Denmark                0-05     0-04
      Germany              96-98    97-05
                                                               Whereas the initial shares may be used up fairly
      France                 0-08     0-04
                                                               quickly; whereas, therefore, to avoid disruption of
                                                               supplies, any Member State which has almost used
       Ireland               0-02      0-01                    up one of its initial shares should draw a
                                                               supplementary share from the appropriate reserve;
       Italy                  1-86     1-27                     whereas this must be done by each Member State as
                                                               each one of its supplementary shares is almost used
       United Kingdom         0-68     0-47                    up, and as many times as the reserve allows ; whereas
                                                               the initial and supplementary shares must be valid
                                                                until the end of the quota period ; whereas this form
  Whereas in view of these factors and of market                of administration requires close collaboration
  forecasts for these products in 1974 the initial              between the Member States and the Commission, and
  percentage shares in the quota volume can be                  the Commission must be in a position to follow the
  expressed roughly as follows :                                extent to which the quota volume has been used up
                                                                and inform the Member States ;
  — for unwrought magnesium not in alloy:
                                                                Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a
       Benelux              14-60
                                                                Member State has a considerable quantity of one of
       Denmark                0-06                              its initial shares left over, it is essential that it should
                                                                return a significant proportion thereof to the
       Germany              54-81                               appropriate reserve, to prevent a part of one or other
                                                                quota volume from remaining unused in one Member
       France                 1-70                              State while it could be used in others;
 ---pagebreak---  31 . 12. 73                         Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 365/41
"Whereas since the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom                   Germany               465*8 metric tons
of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of                            France                  14-5 metric tons
Luxembourg are jointly represented by the Benelux
 Economic Union any measure concerning the                           Ireland                   0-3 metric tons
 administration    of   the   shares  allocated  to   that
 economic union may be carried out by one of its                     Italy                     3*4 metric tons
 members,                                                            United Kingdom        241-4 metric tons
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
                                                                (b ) for unwrought magnesium in alloy :
                                                                     Benelux                  108 metric tons
                          Article 1
                                                                     Denmark                     2 metric tons
 1 . During the period from 1 January to 31                          Germany               7 988 metric tons
December 1974 a Community tariff quota of 10 250
 metric tons shall be opened in the Community for                    France                      2 metric tons
 unwrought magnesium falling within subheading                       Ireland                     2 metric tons
 77.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff. .
                                                                     Italy                    108 metric tons
2.      The volume of the tariff quota shall be divided
as follows :                                                         United Kingdom            40 metric tons
 ( a) as to 1 000 metric tons for unwrought
      magnesium containing not less than 99-8 % by              2. The second tranches, of 150 metric tons and
      weight of pure magnesium ('unwrought                      1 000 metric tons respectively, shall be held as
      magnesium not in alloy'); and                             Community reserves.
(b) as to 9 250 metric tons for unwrought
      magnesium containing less than 99-8 % by
                                                                                         Article 3
      weight of pure magnesium ('unwrought
       magnesium in alloy').
                                                                1.     If 90 % or more of one of a Member State's
3 . Imports of the said goods may not be counted                initial shares as specified in Article 2 (1 ), or of that
 under this tariff quota if they are already free of            share minus the portion returned to the appropriate
 customs duties under other preferential tariff                 reserve where Article 5 is applied, has been used up,
treatment applied by certain Member States, in                  that Member State shall without delay, by notifying
particular under free trade agreements.                         the Commission, draw a second share equal to 10 %
                                                                of its initial share, rounded up where necessary to the
                                                                next unit, to the extent permitted by the amount of
4. Within this tariff quota the Common Customs                  the reserve.
Tariff duties shall be totally suspended.
5.      Within this tariff quota the new Member States          2. If, after one or other of its initial shares has
shall apply duties calculated in accordance with the            been used up, 90 % or more of the second share
relevant provisions of the Act of Accession.                    drawn by a Member State has been used up, that
                                                                Member State shall, in accordance with the
                                                                conditions imposed by paragraph 1 , draw a third
                          Article 2                             share equal to 5 % of its initial share, rounded up
                                                                where necessary to the next unit.
1 . The first tranche of each of these quota
amounts consisting of 850 metric tons of unwrought              3.    If, after one or other of its second shares has
magnesium not in alloy and 8 250 metric tons of                 been used up, 90 % or more of the third share drawn
unwrought magnesium in alloy shall be allocated                 by a Member State has been used up, that Member
among the Member States ; the respective shares of              State shall, in accordance with the same conditions,
the Member States, which, subject to Article 5, shall           draw a fourth share equal to the third.
be valid from 1 January to 31 December 1974, shall
be as follows :
                                                                This process shall continue to apply until the reserves
 ( a) for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :                    are used up.
      Benelux               124-1 metric tons
                                                                4. By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 to 3 , a
      Denmark                  0-5 metric tons                  Member State may draw shares lower than those
 ---pagebreak---  No L 365 /42                      Official Journal of the European Communities                             31 . 12. 73
fixed in those paragraphs if there are grounds for            It shall ensure that the drawing which uses up a
believing that those fixed may not be used up . It shall      reserve is limited to the balance available and to this
inform the Commission of its reasons for applying             end shall specify the amount thereof to the Member
this paragraph.                                               State making the last drawing.
                        Article 4
                                                                                      Article 7
Supplementary shares drawn pursuant to Article 3
shall be valid until 31 December 1974.                        1 . Member States shall take all measures necessary
                                                              to ensure that supplementary shares drawn pursuant
                                                              to Article 3 are opened in such a way that imports
                        Article 5                             may be charged without interruption against their
                                                              accumulated shares in the Community qiiota.
A Member State which on 15 September 1974 has
not used up one or other of its initial shares shall          2.    Member States shall ensure that importers of
return to the appropriate reserve not later than 10           the said goods established in their territory have free
October 1974 the unused portion exceeding 20 % of             access to the shares allocated to them.
the initial amount. It may return a greater portion if
there are grounds for believing that it may not be            3.    The extent to which a Member State has used
used up.                                                      up its shares shall be determined on the basis of the
                                                              quantities of the said goods entered for home use.
Member States shall, not later than 10 October 1974,
notify the Commission of the total quantities of the
said goods imported up to and including 15                                            Article 8
September 1974 and charged against the Community
quota and any quantities of the initial shares returned       Member States shall inform the Commission at
to the reserves .                                             regular intervals of imports actually charged against
                                                              their shares.
                        Article 6
                                                                                      Article 9
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2            Member States and the Commission shall cooperate
and 3 and shall, as soon as it has been notified,             closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
inform each State of the extent to which the reserve          observed.
has been used up .
It shall inform the Member States, not later than 15                                 Article 10
October 1974, of the amount still in reserve after
amounts have been returned thereto pursuant to                This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
Article 5 .                                                   1974.
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 28 December 1973 .
                                                                                For the Council
                                                                                  The President
                                                                                Ove GULDBERG