CELEX: 31974R3174
Language: en
Date: 1974-12-11 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 3174/74 of the Council of 11 December 1974 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

18 . 12. 74                      Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 339 / 1
                                                          I
                                        (Acts whose publication is obligatory)
                           REGULATION (EEC) No 3174/74 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                of 11 December 1974
              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            Whereas, taking into account an overall, provisional
within tariff subheading 77.01 A, to open an annual           quota volume of 12 000 metric tons, it has been found
Community tariff quota for a quantity such that               that there exists an immediate need to import some
Community requirements for the said goods not                 700 metric tons of extra-pure magnesium, 1 500
covered by Community production may be imported               metric tons of unwrought magnesium not in alloy and
duty-free ;                                                   9 800 metric tons of unwrought magnesium in alloy ;
                                                              whereas these figures would seem to be justified both
                                                              by the former ratios of consumption of these qualities
Whereas, in order to establish the volume of the              to total consumption of magnesium and by the short­
Community tariff quota, an assessment must be made            term outlook for Community production of these qual­
of the total consumption by the user industries of the        ities of magnesium ;
Member States during the quota year and of the
Community production level for the same period ;
whereas even a very rough assessment of total
consumption and production for 1975 would be                  Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota
highly unreliable since it is at present impossible to        should be ensured for all importers and the rate of
estimate either the volume of unwrought magnesium             levy for the tariff quota should be applied consistently
used in certain Member States in the year under               to all imports until the quota is used up ; whereas, in
consideration or the likely level of Community                the light of the principles outlined above, a Commu­
output ; whereas, in any case, there is no likelihood of      nity tariff arrangement based on an allocation between
Community production fully meeting demand in the              the Member States would seem to preserve the
quota year ; whereas the annual quota volume must             Community nature of the quota ; whereas, to repre­
therefore be fixed at an appropriate level, probably          sent as closely as possible the actual development of
about 12 000 metric tons ; whereas this assessment is         the market in the said goods, the allocation should
based on conservative estimates and later adjustments         follow proportionately the requirements of the
are not excluded ; whereas the duties to be applied by        Member      States  calculated both  from   statistics of
the new Member States under the said tariff quota             imports from third countries during a representative
must comply with the relevant provisions of the Act           reference period and from the economic outlook for
of Accession :                                                the quota year in question ;
 ---pagebreak--- No L 339 /2                        Official Journal of the European Communities                             18 . 12 . 74
Whereas, however, the available statistics of imports        — for unwrought magnesium in alloy :
into the Member States from third countries which
did not benefit from an equivalent tariff preference               Benelux                               2-12
under any other preferential arrangements cover only               Denmark                               0-03
unwrought magnesium in alloy and unwrought magne­                  Germany                              96-50
sium not in alloy ; whereas, during the last three years           France                                0-03
for which statistics are available, such imports repre­            Ireland                               0-02
sented the following percentages of total imports of               Italy                                 0-80
the said goods ; whereas, from the information at                  United Kingdom                        0-50
present to hand, it would seem that imports of extra­
pure magnesium are effected almost wholly into the
United Kingdom, where they are incorporated in the
statistics concerning unwrought magnesium not in              Whereas, in order to take more accurate account of
alloy :                                                       future import trends for the said goods, the total quota
                                                             volume for each quality of unwrought magnesium
— for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :                      should be divided into two tranches, the first being
                                                              allocated among the Member States and the second
                                                              held as a reserve to cover at a later date the require­
                                  1971      1972    1973      ments of Member States who have used up their
     Benelux                       8-39     12-27   6-59      initial shares ; whereas, in order to guarantee impor­
     Denmark                      0-10       0-09    0
                                                              ters some degree of security, the first tranches should
                                                              be fixed at 500 metric tons of extra-pure magnesium,
     Germany                    60-47      62-42   70-34
     France                       3-75       3-53    9-45
                                                              1 250 metric tons of unwrought magnesium not in
     Ireland                      0-10       0-09    0-01
                                                              alloy and 8 000 metric tons of unwrought magnesium
                                                              in alloy, the balances being held as the reserves ;
     Italy                        1-16       0-44    2-49
     United Kingdom             2603       21-16   11-12
— for unwrought magnesium in alloy :                         Whereas the initial shares may be used up more or
                                                              less quickly ; whereas, therefore, in order to avoid
                                                              disrupting supplies, any Member State which has
                                  1971      1972    1973
                                                              almost used up one of its initial shares should draw a
     Benelux                     0-18       0-32    3-18      supplementary share from the relevant reserve ;
     Denmark                      0-04       006     0        whereas this must be done by each Member State as
     Germany                    94-67      97-51   93-33      each one of its supplementary shares is almost used
     France                       1-86       0-06    0        up, as many times as the reserve allows ; whereas the
     Ireland                     005        006     0-01      initial and supplementary shares must be valid until
     Italy                        3-11       1-87    3-46     the end of the quota period ; whereas this form of
     United Kingdom              0-09       0-12    0-02      administration requires close collaboration between
                                                              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 1975, the United Kingdom
should, on an expertimental basis, be allotted a
preponderant share of this quality of magnesium and
the other Member States should be allotted smaller
                                                              Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a
shares, while safeguarding the Community character
                                                              Member State has a considerable quantity of one of its
of this quota by setting up an adequate reserve, and          initial shares left over, it is essential that it should
the initial percentage shares for the other qualities of
                                                              return a significant proportion thereof to the relevant
magnesium should be fixed approximately at the
                                                              reserve, to prevent a part of one or other quota volume
following levels : ,
                                                              from remaining unused in one Member State while it
                                                             could be used in others ;
    for u n wrought magnesium not in alloy :
    Benelux                               1 5-60
    Denmark                                 0-06             Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the
    Germany                               62-50               Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
    France                                  4-50              Luxembourg are jointly represented by the Benelux
    Ireland                                 0-03              Economic Union , any measure concerning the admin­
    Italy                                   0-40             istration of the shares allocated to that Economic­
    United Kingdom                        16-91               Union may be carried out by any one of its members,
 ---pagebreak---  18 . 12 . 74                        Official Journal of the European Communities                              No L 339 /3
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                                  (b) for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :
                                                                    Benelux                     195  metric  tons,
                                                                    Denmark                        1 metric  ton ,
                          Article 1                                 Germany                     781  metric  tons,
                                                                    France                       56  metric  tons,
 1.     During the period from 1 January to 31                      Ireland                        1 metric  ton ,
December 1975 a Community tariff quota of 12 000                    Italy                          5 metric  tons,
metric tons shall be opened in the Community for                    United Kindgom             21 1  metric  tons ;
unwrought magnesium falling within subheading
77.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff.                          (c) for unwrought magnesium in alloy :
                                                                    Benelux                     170 metric tons,
2.      The volume of the tariff quota shall be divided             Denmark                        2 metric tons,
as follows :                                                        Germany                  7 720 metric tons,
                                                                    France                         2 metric tons ,
(a) 700 metric tons for unwrought magnesium                         Ireland                        2 metric tons,
      containing 99-95 % or more by weight of pure                  Italy                        64 metric tons,
      magnesium ('extra-pure magnesium'), intended for              United Kingdom               40 metric tons.
      the nuclear industry, under customs or equivalent
     administrative control ;                                  2.     The second tranches, of 200 metric tons, 250
                                                               metric tons and 1 800 metric tons respectively, shall
(b) 1 500 metric tons for unwrought magnesium                  be held as Community reserves.
      containing not less than 99-8 % or more, but less
      than 99-95 % , by weight of pure magnesium
     ('unwrought magnesium not in alloy') ;                                              Article 3
(c) 9 800 metric tons for unwrought magnesium                   1.    If 90 % or more of one of a Member State 's
      containing less than 99-8 % by weight of pure            initial shares as specified in Article 2 ( 1 ), or of that
      magnesium ('unwrought magnesium in alloy').              share minus the portion returned to the relevant
                                                                reserve where Article 5 is applied, has been used up,
3 . Imports of the said goods shall not be counted             that Member State shall without delay, by notifying
under this tariff quota if they are already free of            the Commission, draw a second share equal to 10 %
customs duties under other preferential tariff treat­          of its initial share, where necessary rounded off
ment applied by certain Member States, in particular           upwards to the next unit, in so far as permitted by the
under free trade agreements.                                   amount of the reserve .
4.      Within this tariff quota the Common Customs            2.     If, after one or other of its initial shares has been
Tariff duties shall be totally suspended.                      used up, 90 % or more of the second share drawn by
                                                               a Member State has been used up, that Member State
5 . Within this tariff quota the new Member States             shall , in accordance with the conditions laid down in
shall apply duties calculated in accordance , with the         paragraph 1 , draw a third share equal to 5 % of its
relevant provisions of the Act of Accession .                  initial share, where necessary rounded off upwards to
                                                               the next unit .
                                                               3.     If, after one or other of its second shares has
                          Article 2
                                                               been used up, 90 % or more of the third share drawn
                                                               by a Member State has been used up, that Member
1 . The first tranches of these quotas, of 500 metric          State shall , in accordance with the same conditions,
tons of extra-pure magnesium, 1 250 metric tons of             draw a fourth share equal to the third .
unwrought magnesium not in alloy and 8 000 metric
tons of unwrought magnesium in alloy respectively,             This process shall continue to apply until the reserves
shall be allocated among the Member States ; the               are used up.
respective shares of the Member States, which , subject
to Article 5, shall be valid from 1 January to 31              4.     Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 to 3 , a Member
December 1 975, shall be as follows :                          State may draw shares lower than those fixed in these
                                                               paragraphs if there are grounds for believing that
(a) for extra-pure magnesium :                                 those fixed might not be used up . It shall inform the
     Benelux                      3  metric  tons,             Commission of its reasons for applying this para­
     Denmark                       1 metric  ton ,             graph .
     Germany                       1 metric  ton ,
     France                        1 metric  ton ,                                       Article 4
     Ireland                       1 metric  ton ,
     Italy                         1 metric  ton ,             Supplementary shares drawn pursuant to Article 3
     United Kingdom             492  metric  tons ;            shall be valid until 31 December 1975 .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 339/4                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             18 . 12 . 74
                        Article 5                                                       Article 7
A Member State which on 15 September 1975 has not             1 . Member States shall take all measures necessary
used up one or other of its initial shares shall return      to ensure that supplementary shares drawn pursuant
to the relevant reserve not later than 10 October 1975       to Article 3 are opened in such a way that imports
the unused portion exceeding 20 % of the initial              may be charged without interruption against their
amount. It may return a greater portion if there are         accumulated shares in the Community quota.
grounds for believing that it may not be used up.
                                                             2. Member States shall ensure that importers of the
Member States shall , not later than 10 October 1975,        said goods established in their territory have free
notify the Commission of the total quantities of the         access to the shares allocated to them .
said goods imported up to and including 15
September 1975 and charged against the Community             3 . The extent to which a Member State has used up
quota and any quantities of the initial shares returned       its shares shall be determined on the basis of the quan­
to the reserves .                                             tities of the said goods entered for home use .
                        Article 6                                                       Article 8
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares            Member      States  shall  inform   the Commission       at
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2            regular intervals of imports actually charged against
and 3 and shall, as soon as it has been notified, inform      their shares.
each State of the extent to which the reserve has been
used up.                                                                                Article 9
It shall inform the Member States, not later than 15
October 1975 , of the amount still in reserve after           Member States and the Commission shall cooperate
amounts have been returned thereto pursuant to                closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
                                                              observed .
Article 5 .
It shall ensure that the drawing which uses up a                                       Article 10
reserve is limited to the balance available and to this
end shall specify the amount thereof to the Member           This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
State making the last drawing.                                1975 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 11 December 1974 .
                                                                           For the Council
                                                                             The President
                                                                            M. CAVAILLE