CELEX: 31974R2660
Language: en
Date: 1974-10-15 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 2660/74 of the Council of 15 October 1974 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for newsprint falling within subheading 48.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff and extending this quota to include certain types of paper falling within subheading 48.01 E thereof (1975)

No L 285/4                         Official Journal of the European Communities                                    22. 10 . 74
                            REGULATION (EEC) No 2660/74 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                 of 15 October 1974
              opening , allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff
              quota for newsprint falling within subheading 48.01 A of the Common Customs
              Tariff and extending this quota to include certain types of paper falling within
                                         subheading 48.01 E thereof ( 1975)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                   Whereas, for the past three years for which complete
COMMUNITIES,                                                  statistics are available ; the imports of each of the
                                                              Member States amounted to the following percentages
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European         of total imports of the products in question :
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 28
and 113 thereof ;                                                                               1971       1972            1973
                                                              Benelux                           11-74      1 1 - 53      12-18
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;
                                                              Denmark                            4-66        7-02          6-92
Whereas the Community has undertaken to open an               Germany                           29-12      26-65         27-03
annual duty-free Community tariff quota of 1 500 000          France                             6-86        7-64          9-45
metric tons of newsprint falling within subheading            Ireland                            1 - 55      1-95          0
48.01 A ;                                                     Italy                              0-07        006           0-34
                                                              United Kingdom                    46-00      45-15          44-08 ;
Whereas, in view of present Community production
capacity, that quantity is insufficient to meet antici­
                                                              Whereas, in order to arrive at a proper assessment of
pated import requirements ; whereas provision should          those statistics, however, it should be borne in mind
therefore be made for an autonomous supplementary
                                                              that the opening of a Community tariff quota for the
quota which , according to the estimates submitted,
                                                              enlarged Community may alter the pattern of trade of
may be fixed at present at 1 500 000 metric tons ;            Member States with third countries ; whereas, in view
whereas the fact that this figure has been adopted for        of the above and of the foreseeable trend on the
the autonomous supplementary quota does not rule
                                                              market in newsprint, in general , and of production in
out a readjustment during the quota period ; whereas a
                                                              particular, the first tranche of the 1 975 quota may be
Community tariff quota should therefore be opened
                                                              allocated approximately in the following percentages :
for 1975 for a total quantity of 3 000 000 metric tons
of the product in question ;
                                                                        Benelux                                  13-40
                                                                        Denmark                                    6-80
Whereas, since the present world shortage of paper
meets all the requirements set out in the supplemen­                   Germany                                   25-80
tary note to Chapter 48 , in particular that relating to                France                                   1 1 -00 .
                                                                        Ireland                                    0-72
watermarks, provision should be made for temporarily
extending the tariff quota in question to include                       Italy                                      1 -43
certain types of paper fulfilling all requirements                      United Kingdom                           40-85 ;
except that relating to watermarks and falling at
present within subheading 48.01 E ;                           Whereas, to take account of import trends for the
                                                               product concerned , the quota should be divided into
Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota               two tranches, the first being allocated among the
should be ensured for all Community importers and              Member States and the second held as a reserve to
the rate of duty for the tariff quota should be applied        cover subsequently the requirements of Member States
without interruption to all imports of the product in          which have exhausted their initial shares ; whereas, to
question until the quota is exhausted ; whereas in the        give importers some degree of certainty and yet
 light of these principles, arrangements for the utiliza­      enable Community ■ production to be disposed of on
tion of the Community tariff quota based on an alloca­         satisfactory terms, the first tranche of the quota should
 tion among Member States would seem to be                     be fixed at about 97 % of the full amount ;
consistent with the Community nature of the quota ;
whereas, in order that it may correspond as closely as
 possible to the actual trend of the market in the             Whereas Member States may exhaust their initial
 product in question , allocation of the quota should be       shares at different rates ; whereas to provide for this
 in proportion to the requirements of the Member               eventuality and avoid disruption of supplies any
 States as calculated by reference to statistics on            Member State which has almost used up its initial
 imports from third countries during a representative          share should draw an additional share from the
 reference period and to the economic outlook for the          reserve ; whereas each time its additional share is
 year covered by the quota in question ;                       almost     exhausted  a  Member       State  should       draw     a
 ---pagebreak--- 22. 10 . 74                          Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 285/ 5
further share, and so on as many times as the reserve           2.     A first tranche of 2 889 000 metric tons shall be
allows ; whereas the initial and additional shares             allocated among the Member States . Member States
should be valid until the end of the quota period ;            shares, which subject to Article 5 shall be valid from 1
whereas this form of administration requires close             January until 31 December 1975, shall be as follows :
collaboration between      the Member States and the
                                                                                                               metric tuns
Commission, which latter must be in a position to
                                                                Benelux                                        374 000
keep account of the extent to which the quota has
                                                                Denmark                                        190 000
been used up and to inform the Member States accord­
ingly ;                                                        Germany                                         720 000
                                                                France                                        400 000
Whereas if at a given date in the quota period a                Ireland                                         20 000
considerable quantity of a Member State's initial share         Italy                                           45 000
remains unused it is essential , to prevent a part of the       United Kingdom                                 140 000 .
Community tariff quota from remaining unused in
one Member State while it could be used in others,             3.      The second tranche , of 111 000 metric tons,
that such State should return a significant proportion         shall constitute the reserve .
thereof to the reserve ;
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the                                                Article 3
Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented            1.     If 90 % or more of a Member State's initial share
by the Benelux Economic Union , any transaction in              as fixed in Article 2 (2), or of that share minus the
respect of the administration of the shares allocated to        portion returned to the reserve where Article 5 has
that Economic Union may be carried out by any one              been applied, it shall forthwith , by notifying the
of its members,                                                 Commission , draw a second share , to the extent that
                                                                the reserve so permits, equal to 10 % of its initial
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                                  share, rounded up as necessary to the next whole
                                                                number.
                         Article 1
                                                                2.     If, after its initial share has been exhausted ,
1.    During the period from 1 January to 31                    90 % or more of the second share drawn by a
December 1975, a Community tariff quota of                      Member State has been used up, that Member State
3 000 000 metric tons shall be opened in respect of             shall , in the manner and to the extent provided in
newsprint falling within subheading 48.01 A of the
                                                                paragraph 1 , draw a third share equal to 5% of its
Common Customs Tariff (*).                                      initial share .
2.    During this period, Member States shall be autho­
rized to charge against this tariff quota paper falling         3.     If, after its second share has been exhausted ,
within subheading 48.01 E and corresponding to the              90 % or more of the third share drawn by a Member
definition of newsprint contained in the Additional             State has been used up, that Member State shall , in
Note to Chapter 48 , except as regards the criteria             the manner and to the extent provided in paragraph 1 ,
governing watermarks.                                           draw a fourth share equal to the third .
3.    Imports of newsprint shall not be charged                This procedure shall apply until the reserve is
against this tariff quota if they are already free of           exhausted .
customs duties under other preferential tariff treat­
ment . Furthermore, imports of paper falling within             4.     Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 , 2 and 3, Member
subheading 48.01 E enjoying duty-free exemption                 States may draw lesser shares than those specified in
under the said tariff quota shall not be charged against        those paragraphs if there are grounds for believing
the guide ceilings fixed under certain free trade agree­        that those specified may not be used in full . They
ments .                                                         shall inform the Commission         of their reasons for
4. The Common Customs Tariff duty shall be                      applying this provision .
totally suspended within the limits of the above quota .
5.     New Member States shall apply duties calculated                                    Article 4
in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Act
of Accession to imports within the limits of the above          Additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3 shalTbe
                                                                valid until 31 December 1975 .
quota .
                          Article 2
                                                                                          Article 5
 1.   The Community tariff quota referred to in
Article 1 shall be divided into two tranches .                  A Member State which on 15 September 1975 has not
                                                                used up its initial share shall return to the reserve not
(') Entry under this subheading is subject to conditions to be  later than 10 October 1975 any unused portion in
    determined by the competent authorities .                   excess of 20 % of the initial amount . It may return a
 ---pagebreak--- No L 285/6                           Official Journal of the European Communities                             22. 10 . 74
greater portion if there are grounds for believing that         imports may be charged without interruption against
it may not be used up.                                          their accumulated share of the Community quota.
Member States shall , not later than 10 October 1975,           2. Member States shall take all measures necessary
notify the Commission of the total quantities of the            to ensure that paper falling within subheading 48.01 E
products in question imported up to and including 15            included in this tariff quota is in fact intended for the
September 1975 and charged against the Community                printing of newspapers, weekly papers or other periodi­
tariff quota and of any portion of their initial shares         cals of heading No 49.02, published at least 10 times
returned to the reserve .                                       per year.
                          Article 6
                                                                3 . Member States shall ensure that importers of the
                                                                products in question established in their territory have
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares              free access to the shares allocated to it.
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2              4. The extent to which a Member State has used up
and 3 and shall , as soon as it has been notified, inform
each Member State of the extent to which the reserve
                                                                its shares shall be determined on the basis of imports
                                                                of the products in question entered with the customs
has been used up.                                               authorities for home use .
It shall inform the Member States , not later than 15
October 1975 , of the amount still in reserve after                                      Article 8
amounts have been returned thereto pursuant to
Article 5.                                                      Member States shall notify the Commission at regular
                                                                intervals of the imports charged against their shares.
 It shall ensure that when a quantity exhausting the
 reserve is drawn , the amount so drawn does . not                                       Article 9
exceed the balance available , and to this end shall
 notify the amount of that balance to the Member State          Member States and the Commission shall cooperate
 making the last drawing.                                       closely to ensure that this Regulation is complied
                                                                with .
                          Article 7
                                                                                        Article 10
 1.    Member      States  shall    take   all    appropriate
 measures   to   ensure   that   additional    shares  drawn    This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
 pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that             1975 .
               This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
               States .
               Done at Luxembourg, 15 October 1974.
                                                                             For the Council
                                                                              The President
                                                                             B. DESTREMAU