CELEX: 31978R0924
Language: en
Date: 1978-05-02 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 924/78 of 2 May 1978 on the opening, allocation and administration of a Community tariff quota for sherry, falling within heading No ex 22.05 of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Spain

4. 5 . 78                            Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 120 / 5
                                    COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 924/78
                                                      of 2 May 1978
               on the opening, allocation and administration of a Community tariff quota for
               sherry, falling within heading No ex 22.05 of the Common Customs Tariff and
                                                  originating in Spain
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                     Whereas, for particular reasons inherent in the
COMMUNITIES,                                                    method of production and distribution of the product
                                                                concerned, the import of these wines into the Commu­
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European           nity is for the greater part carried out in the last
Economic Community, and in particular Article 113               months of each year ; whereas as a consequence the
thereof,                                                        volume of the quotas opened for the period 1 January
                                                                to 30 April 1978 have not been able to be used up
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,              completely ; whereas, by way of exception , it is neces­
                                                                sary to provide for the residual amounts left over from
Whereas, on the signing of the Agreement between                this period to be taken into consideration so that they
the European Economic Community and Spain (') on                can be used during the period of validity of this Regu­
29 June 1970, the Community undertook to grant                  lation ;
preferential tariff arrangements for imports into the
Community of certain wines originating in Spain , in
particular sherry ; whereas, in order to satisfy this           Whereas these wines remain subject to the provisions
undertaking, the Community has opened each year                 governing the common organization of the market in
two tariff quotas, namely :                                     wine ; whereas inclusion in the Community tariff
                                                                quota should be subject to production of movement
— 40 000 hectolitres at a duty rate of 40 % of the              certificate A.E.I and a certificate of designation of
     Common Customs Tariff duties, for sherry in                origin as provided for in Regulation (EEC) No
     containers holding two litres or less, falling within       1 1 20/75 (4);
     subheadings ex 22.05 C III a) 1 and ex 22.05 C IV
     a) 1 and originating in Spain,
                                                                Whereas sherries which enter the geographic territory
— 210 000 hectolitres at a duty rate of 50 % of the             of the Community from 1 May 1978 must respect the
     Common Customs Tariff duties, for sherry in                reference prices applicable to them and also the provi­
     containers holding more than two litres, falling           sions of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2506/75 of 29
     within subheadings ex 22.05 C III b) 1 and ex              September 1975 laying down special rules for the
     22.05 C IV b) 1 and originating in Spain ;                 importation of products in the wine-growing sectoi
                                                                originating in certain third countries (5) which intro­
Whereas these preferential tariff arrangements were             duced the idea of a free-at-frontier reference price,
laid down only for imports of these products into the           being the reference price less customs duties actually
Member States of the Community as originally consti­            levied ;
tuted ; whereas, under the Act of Accession, importa­
tion of these products into the three new Member
States are subject to Common Customs Tariff duties              Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure to all
with effect from 1 July 1977 ; whereas the import               Community importers equal and uninterrupted access
arrangements for these products should be uniform               to the abovementioned quotas and uninterrupted
throughout the Community ; whereas, therefore, the              application of the rates laid down for these quotas tc
aforementioned annual quotas should be increased to             all imports of the products concerned into all Membei
 108 000 and 685 000 hectolitres respectively ; whereas         States until the quotas have been used up ; whereas,
by reason of special circumstances the Community                having regard to the principles mentioned above, the
has already opened Community tariff quotas by Regu­             Community nature of the quotas can be respected by
lations (EEC) No 3012/77 0 and (EEC) No 532/78 (3)              allocating the Community tariff quotas among the
for the total volumes of 36 000 and 228 340 hecto­              Member States ; whereas, in order to reflect most accu­
litres respectively for the period 1 January to 30 April        rately the actual development of the market in the
1978 ;                                                          products concerned, such allocation should be in
                                                                proportion to the needs of the Member States,
Whereas tariff quotas should thus be opened for the             assessed by reference to both the statistics of each
said wines of 72 000 and 456 660 hectolitres respec­           State's imports of the said products from Spain over a
tively for the period 1 May to 31 December 1978 ;               representative period and the economic outlook foi
                                                                the quota period concerned ;
(') OJ No L 182, 16. 8 . 1970, p. 2.
(2) OJ No L 355, 31 . 12. 1977, p. 27.                         (4) OJ No L 111 , 30 . 4. 1975, p. 19 .
(3) OJ No L 74, 16. 3. 1978, p. 1 .                            (5 ) OJ No L 256, 2. 10 . 1975, p. 2.
 ---pagebreak--- No L 120/6                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                                4. 5. 78
Whereas available Community statistics give no infor­                           States, each of the quota amounts should be divided
mation on the situation of sherry on the markets ;                              into two instalments, the first instalment being allo­
whereas, however, Spanish statistics for exports of                             cated among the Member States and the second
these products to the Community during the past few                             forming a reserve intended ultimately to cover the
years can be considered to reflect approximately the                            requirements of the Member States which have used
situation of Community imports ; whereas, on this                               up their initial quota shares ; whereas, in order to
basis, the corresponding imports by each of the                                 ensure a certain degree of security to importers in
Member States during the past three years represent                             each Member State, the first instalment of the
the following percentages of the imports into the                               Community quotas should be determined at a level
Community from Spain of the products concerned :                                which, under present circumstances, may be about
                                                                                90 % of each of the quota amounts ;
                                               1974    1975      1976
                                                                                Whereas the initial quota shares of the Member States
                                                                                may be used up at different times ; whereas, in order
Sherry :                                                                        to take this fact into account and avoid any break in
— in containers holding two litres or                                           continuity, it is important that any Member State
     less :                                                                     having used up almost the whole of one of its initial
     Benelux                                  45.5    49.5       62.5           quota shares should draw an additional quota share
     Denmark                                     3.7    5.2        5-7          from the corresponding reserve ; whereas this must be
     Germany                                   121     120       13.4           done by each Member State as and when each of its
     France                                      0.4    0.3        0.3          additional quota shares is almost entirely used up and
     Ireland                                     2.8    1.3        10           repeated as many times as the reserve allows ; whereas
     Italy                                       4.9    14         1.2
                                                                                the initial and additional quota shares must be avail­
     United Kingdom                           30.6     30.3      15 8
                                                                                able for use until the end of the quota period ;
— in containers holding more than                                               whereas this method of administration calls for close
     two litres :                                                               cooperation between Member States and the Commis­
     Benelux                                  25.7     39.9      35-3           sion, which must, in particular, be able to observe the
     Denmark                                     3.2    2-9        51           extent to which the quota amounts are used and
     Germany                                     2.4    2-9        3 4          inform Member States thereof ;
     France                                      01     01         0.1
     Ireland                                     10     0.7        0.9          Whereas if at a specified date in the quota period a
     Italy                                       00     00         0.0          considerable balance remains in one or other Member
     United Kingdom                           67.6     53.5      55.2
                                                                                State it is essential that that Member State pays a large
                                                                                amount of it back into the reserve in order to avoid a
                                                                                part of the Community quota remaining unused in
Whereas, in view of these factors and of the estimates                          one Member State when it could be used in others ;
submitted by certain Member States, initial quota
 shares may be fixed approximately at the following                             Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the
 percentages :                                                                   Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
                                                                                 Luxembourg are united in and represented by the
                                      Sherry in containers holding :             Benelux Economic Union, all transactions concerning
                                                                                 the   administration    of   shares      allocated  to  that
                                       two litres
                                         or less
                                                         more than
                                                          two litres
                                                                                economic union may be carried out by any one of its
                                                                                 members,
 Benelux                                 53.61             33.46
 Denmark                                  505               3-83
                                                                                 HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
 Germany                                 13.20               2-99
 France                                   0.31              0.03
 Ireland                                  2-06              0-78                                          Article 1
 Italy                                    2.1 1             0.01
 United Kingdom                          23-66             58.90                 1.    From 1 May until 31 December 1978, the
                                                                                 Common Customs Tariff duties in respect of the sher­
                                                                                 ries mentioned below originating in Spain shall be
 Whereas, in order to take into account import trends                            suspended at the levels or within the limits of the
 for the products concerned in the different Member                              Community tariff quotas indicated for each of them :
                                 CCT                                                            Rate           Quota volume
                                                                    Description
                              heading No                                                   ( in u.a./hl)          (in hi)
                  ex 22.05 C III a) 1                                Sherry                     5-4
                                                                                                                 72 000
                  ex 22.05 C IV a) 1                                 Sherry                     5.8
                  ex 22.05 C III b) 1                                Sherry                     5-5
                                                                                                                456 660
                  ex 22.05 C IV b) 1                                 Sherry                     60
 ---pagebreak--- 4 . 5 . 78                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No L 120/7
2.      The Protocol on the definition of the concept of                the corresponding    reserve. Any part of the reserves set
'originating products' and on methods of administra­                    up by Article 2 of   Regulations (EEC) No 3012/77 and
tive cooperation annexed to the Agreement between                       (EEC) No 532/78       remaining on 30 April 1978 shall
the European Economic Community and Spain shall                         be added thereto,    irrespective of Article 5.
be applicable .
3 . The inclusion of sherry in the Community tariff                                               Article 3
quotas referred to in paragraph 1 shall be conditional
upon production of a movement certificate A.E.1 and                     1.     If 90 % or more of one of the initial shares of a
a certificate of designation of origin as provided for in               Member State, as laid down in Article 2 (2), has been
Regulation (EEC) No 1120/75 and endorsed by the                         exhausted, that Member State shall proceed without
Spanish customs authorities.                                            delay, by notifying the Commission , to draw a second
                                                                        share equal to 10 % of its initial share, rounded up to
Sherry entering the geographic territory of the                         the next unit where appropriate, to the extent that the
                                                                        amount in the reserve allows .
Community from 1 May 1978 must in addition , in
order to benefit from these tariff quotas, observe the
reference prices applicable to them and also prices not                 2.     If, after one or other of its initial shares have
less than the free-at-frontier reference prices referred                been exhausted , 90 % or more of the second share
to in Regulation ( EEC) No 2506/75 and subsequent                       drawn by a Member State has been used, that Member
texts which are applicable to them .                                    State shall proceed in the manner specified in para­
                                                                        graph 1 to draw a third share equal to 5 % of its
                                                                        initial share, rounded up to the next unit where appro­
                          Article 2                                     priate .
                                                                        3.     If, after one or other of its second shares have
 1.     The quotas laid down in Article 1 shall be                      been exhausted , 90 % or more of the third share
divided into two instalments .
                                                                        drawn by a Member State has been used, that Member
                                                                        State shall, in accordance with the same conditions,
2.      A first instalment of each quota shall be allo­                 draw a fourth share equal to the third.
cated among the Member States ; the respective
shares, which shall be valid until 31 December 1978 ,                   This process shall be applied until the reserve is
shall be as follows :                                                   exhausted .
                                                                        4.     By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 , 2 and
                                Sherry hilling within subheadings :     3 , a Member State may proceed to draw shares smaller
                             ex 22.05 C II ! a ) 1 ex 22.0 S C III b) 1
                                                                        than those fixed in those paragraphs if there is reason
                                      and                   and         to believe that those shares might not be used up .
                             ex 22.0 'i C IV a ) 1 ex 22.0 5 C IV b) 1  They shall inform the Commission of the reasons
                                                                        which led them to apply this paragraph .
Benelux                           34 740                1 37 520
Denmark                              3 270                1 5 740
Germany                              8 560                12 290                                  Article 4
France                                  200                   120
Ireland                              1 330                  3 210
                                                                        Each of the additional shares drawn pursuant to
Italy                                1 370                      40
                                                                        Article 3 shall be valid until 31 December 1978 .
United Kingdom                     1 5 330              242 080
                      Total       64 800               41 1 000
                                                                                                  Article 5
                                                                        The Member States shall return to the reserve , not
3 . The shares fixed in paragraph 2 shall be                            later than 15 November 1978 , the unused portion of
increased by any part of the shares allocated by Regu­                  their initial share which , on 1 November 1978 , is in
lations ( EEC) No 3012/77 and ( EEC) No 532/ 78                         excess of 20 % of their initial amount. They may
remaining on 30 April 1978 .                                            return a larger portion if there are reasons for
                                                                        believing that such portion may not be used in full .
Member States shall notify the Commission not later
than 15 May 1978 of any part of the shares allocated                    The Member States shall , not later than 15 November
to them under the abovementioned Regulations                            1978 , notify the Commission of the total imports of
remaining on 30 April 1978 .                                            the products concerned effected up to 1 November
                                                                        1978 inclusive, and charged against the Community
4.      The second instalment of each quota , that is                   quota and , where appropriate, the proportion of its
7 200 and 45 660 hectolitres respectively, shall form                   initial share that is being returned to the reserve .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 120/8                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             4 . 5 . 78
                        Article 6                            3.    The extent to which Member States have used
                                                             up their shares shall be determined on the basis of the
The Commission shall keep account of the shares              imports of the products in question entered for home
opened by Member States in accordance with Articles          use .
2 and 3 and shall inform each of them of the extent
to which the reserve has been used as soon as it
receives the notifications.                                                          Article 8
The Commission shall , not later than 20 November
1978 , inform the Member States of the amount in the         On receipt of a request from the Commission ,
reserve after the return of shares pursuant to Article 5.    Member States shall inform it of imports actually
                                                             charged against their shares.
The Commission shall ensure that any drawing which
uses up the reserve is limited to the balance available
                                                                                     Article 9
and, for this purpose, shall specify the amount thereof
to the Member State which makes the final drawing.
                                                             The Member States and the Commission shall co­
                        AYticle 7                            operate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation
                                                              is observed .
1.    The Member States shall take all appropriate
measures to ensure that, when additional shares are
                                                                                     Article 10
drawn pursuant to Article 3, it is possible for charges
to be made without interruption against their accumu­
lated shares of the Community tariff quotas.                 This Regulation shall enter into force on the day
                                                             following its publication in the Official Journal of
2. The Member States shall ensure that importers              the European Communities.
of the said goods established in their territory have
free access to the shares allocated to them .                 It shall apply from 1 May 1978 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 2 May 1978 .
                                                                          For the Council
                                                                            The President
                                                                         K. B. ANDERSEN