CELEX: 31977R3012
Language: en
Date: 1977-12-20 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 3012/77 of 20 December 1977 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for sherry falling within heading No ex 22.05 of the Common Customs Tariff, originating in Spain

31 . 12 . 77                         Official Journal of the European Communities                         No L 355/27
                                    COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3012/77
                                                   of 20 December 1977
                on the opening, allocating and providing (or the administration of a Commu­
                nity tariff quota for sherry, falling within heading No ex 22.05 of the Common
                                          Customs Tariff, originating in Spain
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                      reference price, entails the division of the quota
 COMMUNITIES,                                                    period into two parts, one covering the first two
                                                                 months of the year, the other covering the period
                                                                 from 1 March to 31 December 1978 ; whereas, as a
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
 Economic Community, and in particular Articles 43               first step, tariff quotas of 18 000 and 114 170 hectoli­
and 113 thereof,                                                tres respectively should thus be opened for the afore­
                                                                 mentioned wines for the period 1 Janua^ to 28
                                                                 February 1978 ;
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia­
ment (1),                                                       Whereas these wines remain subject to the provisions
                                                                governing the common organization of the market in
                                                                wine ; whereas inclusion in the Community tariff
Whereas on the signing of the Agreement between                 quota should be subject to production of movement
the European Economic Community and Spaih (J) on                certificate A.E. 1 and a certificate of designation or
29 June 1970, the Community undertook to grant                  origin as provided for in Regulation (EEC) No
preferential tariff arrangements for imports into the            1120/75 (3) ;
Community of certain wines originating in Spain, in
particular sherry ; whereas in order to satisfy this
undertaking, the Community has opened each year
two tariff quotas, namely :                                     Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure to all
                                                                Community importers equal and uninterrupted access
— 40 000 hectolitres at a duty rate of 40 % of the              to the abovementioned quotas and uninterrupted
     Common Customs Tariff duties, for sherry in                application of the rates laid down for these quotas to
     containers holding two litres or less, falling within      all imports of the products concerned into all Member
     subheadings ex 22.05 C III a) 1 and ex 22.05 C IV          States until the quotas have been used up ; whereas,
     a) 1 , originating in Spain and                            having regard to the principles mentioned above, the
— 210 000 hectolitres at a duty rate of 50 % of the             Community nature of the quotas can be respected by
     Common Customs Tariff duties, for sherry in                allocating the Community tariff quotas among the
     containers holding more than two litres, falling           Member States ; whereas, in order to reflect most accu­
     within subheadings ex 22.05 C III b) 1 and ex              rately the actual development of the market in the
     22.05 C IV b) 1 , originating in Spain ;                   products concerned, such allocation should be in
                                                                proportion to the needs of the Member States,
                                                                assessed by reference to both the statistics of each
Whereas these preferential tariff arrangements were             State's imports of the said products from Spain over a
laid down only for imports of these products into the           representative period and the economic outlook for
Member States of the Community as originally consti­            the quota period concerned ;
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
with effect from 1 July 1977 ; whereas the import
arrangements for these products should be uniform               Whereas available Community statistics give no infor­
throughout the Community ; whereas therefore the                mation on the situation of sherry on the markets ;
aforementioned annual quotas should be increased to             whereas, however, Spanish statistics for exports of
108 000 hectolitres and 685 000 hectolitres respec­             these products to the Community during the last few
tively ; whereas the application to sherry, from 1              years can be considered to reflect approximately the
March 1978, of the provisions governing the common              situation of Community imports ; whereas on this
organization of the market in wine, and in particular           basis the corresponding imports by each of the
those concerning the observance of the free-at-frontier         Member States during the last three years represent
                                                                the following percentages of the imports into the
(J) Opinion delivered on 16 December 1977 (not yet              Community from Spain of the products concerned :
    published in the Official Journal).
(2) OJ No L 182, 16. 8 . 1970, p. 2.                            (3) OJ No L 111 , 30. 4. 1975, p. 19.
 ---pagebreak--- No L 355/28                               Official Journal of the European Communities                            31 . 12. 77
                                                                              1974         1975         1976
               Sherry :
               — in containers holding two litres or less :
                      Benelux                                                 45-5         49-5         62-5
                      Denmark                                                  3-7          5-2          5·7
                     Germany                                                  12-1         120          13-4
                      France                                                   0-4          0-3          0-3
                      Ireland                                                  2-8          1-3          1-0
                      Italy                                                    4-9          1-4          1-2
                      United Kingdom                                          30-6         30-3         15-8
               — in containers holding more than two litres :
                      Benelux                                                 25-7         39-9         35-3
                      Denmark                                                  3-2          2-9          51
                     Germany                                                   2-4          2-9          3-4
                      France                                                   01           01           01
                      Ireland                                                  10           0-7          0-9
                      Italy                                                    00           00           00
                      United Kingdom                                          67-6         53-5         55-2
Whereas, in view of these factors and of the estimates               to take this fact into account and avoid any break in
submitted by certain Member States, initial quota                    continuity, it is important that any Member State
shares may be fixed approximately at the following                   having used up almost the whole of one of its initial
percentages :                                                        quota shares should draw an additional quota share
                                                                     from the corresponding reserve ; whereas this must be
                                   Sherry in containers holding
                                                                     done by each Member State as and when each of its
        Member States
                                                                     additional quota shares is almost entirely used up, and
                                 two litres             more than
                                                        two litres
                                                                     repeated as many times as the reserve allows ; whereas
                                  or less
                                                                     the initial and additional quota shares must be avail­
                                                                     able for use until the end of the quota period ;
Benelux                           53-61                  33-46       whereas this method of administration calls for close
Denmark                             505                    3-83
                                                                     cooperation between Member States and the Commis­
Germany                           13-20                    2-99
                                                                     sion, which must, in particular, be able to observe the
France                             0-31                    0-03
Ireland                            2-06                    0-78      extent to which the quota amounts are used and
Italy                              2-1 1                   0-01      inform Member States thereof ;
United Kingdom                    23-66                  58-90
                                                                     Whereas since the Kingdom of Belgium, the
                                                                     Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
                                                                     Luxembourg are united in and represented by the
Whereas, in order to take into account import trends                 Benelux Economic Union any measure concerning
for the products concerned in the different Member                   the administration of the quota shares allocated to
States, each of the quota amounts should be divided                  that economic union may be carried out by any one
                                                                     of its members,
into two tranches, the first tranche being allocated
among the Member States and the second forming a
reserve intended ultimately to cover the requirements
of the Member States which have used up their initial                HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
quota shares ; whereas, in order to ensure a certain
degree of security to importers in each Member State,
the first instalment of the Community quotas should                                          Article 1
be determined at a level which, under present circum­
stances, may be about 90 % of each of the quota                      1.    From 1 January until 28 February 1978 , the
amounts ;
                                                                     Common Customs Tariff duties in respect of the sher­
                                                                     ries mentioned below originating in Spain shall be
                                                                     partially suspended at the levels or within the limits of
Whereas the initial quota shares of the Member States                the Community tariff quotas indicated for each of
may be used up at different times ; whereas, in order                them :
 ---pagebreak--- 31 . 12. 77                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                            No L 355/29
                                                                                               Rate               Quota volume
                             CCT heading No                  Description
                                                                                           (in u.a./ hl)              (in hi)
                                                              sherry
               ex
               ex
                   22.05
                   22.05
                         C
                         C
                            III
                            IV
                                a)
                                a)
                                   1
                                   1                          sherry
                                                                                               5-4
                                                                                               5-8               I 18 000
               ex
               ex
                   22.05
                   22.05
                         C
                         C
                            III
                            IV
                                b)
                                b)
                                    1
                                    1
                                                              sherry
                                                              sherry
                                                                                               5-5
                                                                                               60                j 114 170
               2. The Protocol on the definition of the concept of 'originating products and on
               methods of administrative cooperation, annexed to the Agreement between the European
               Economic Community and Spain, shall be applicable .
               3. The inclusion of sherry in the Community tariff quotas referred to in paragraph 1
               shall be conditional upon production of a movement certificate A.E.I and a certificate of
               designation of origin as provided for in Regulation (EEC) No 1120/75 and endorsed by
               the Spanish customs authorities.
                                                           Article 2
               1.     The quotas laid down in Article 1 shall be divided into two tranches.
               2. A first tranche of each quota shall be allocated among the Member States ; the
               respective shares which shall be valid until 28 February 1978 , shall be as follows :
                                                                            Sherry falling within subheadings :
                                Member States                  ex 22.05 C III a) 1                       ex 22.05 C III b) 1
                                                                         and                                     and
                                                                ex 22.05 C IV a) 1                       ex 22.05 C IV b) 1
               Benelux                                                  8 690                                  34 370
               Denmark                                                    820                                    3 930
               Germany                                                  2 140                                    3 070
               France                                                       50                                       30
               Ireland                                                    330                                      800
               Italy                                                      340                                        10
               United Kingdom                                           3 830                                  60 490
                                                   Total               16 200                                 102 700
3 . The second tranche of each quota, that is 1 800                   graph 1 to draw a third share equal to 5 % of its
and 11 470 hectolitres respectively, shall constitute the             initial share, rounded up to the next unit where appro­
corresponding reserve .                                               priate.
                                                                      3.      If, after one or other of its second shares have
                           Article 3                                  been exhausted , 90 % or more of the third share
                                                                      drawn by a Member State has been used, that Member
                                                                      State shall , in accordance with the same conditions,
 1.   If 90 % or more of one of the initial shares of a               drawn a fourth share equal to the third.
Member State, as laid down in Article 2 (2), has been
exhausted, that Member State shall proceed without
delay, by notifying the Commission , to draw a second                 This process shall be applied until the reserve is
share equal to 10 % of its initial share, rounded up to               exhausted .
the next unit where appropriate, to the extent that the
amount in the reserve allows .
                                                                      4.      By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 , 2 and
                                                                      3, a Member State may proceed to draw shares smaller
2.    If, after one or other of its initial shares have               than those fixed in those paragraphs, if there is reason
been exhausted, 90 % or more of the second share                      to believe that those shares might not be used up.
drawn by a Member State has been used, that Member                    They shall inform the Commission of the reasons
State shall proceed in the manner specified in para­                  which led them to apply this paragraph .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 355/30                        Official Journal of the European Communities                            31 . 12. 77
                        Article 4                             2. The Member States shall ensure that importers
                                                              of the said goods established in their territory have
Each of the additional shares drawn pursuant to               free access to the shares allocated to them .
Article 3 shall be valid until 28 February 1978 .
                                                              3.     The extent to which Member States have used
                        Article 5                             up their shares shall be determined on the basis of the
                                                              imports of the products in question entered for home
The Commission shall keep account of the shares               use .
opened by Member States in accordance with Articles
2 and 3 and shall inform each of them of the extent                                   Article 7
to which the reserve has been used as soon as it
receives the notifications .                                  On receipt of a request from the Commission,
                                                              Member States shall inform it of imports actually
The Commission shall ensure that any drawing which            charged against their shares.
uses up the reserve is limited to the balance available
and, for this purpose, shall specify the amount thereof                               Article 8
to the Member State which makes the final drawing.
                                                              The Member States and the Commission shall coop­
                        Article 6                             erate 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 9
drawn pursuant to Article 3, it is possible for charges
to be made without interruption against their accumu­         This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
lated shares of the Community tariff quota.                   1978 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States.
              Done at Brussels, 20 December 1977 .
                                                                          For the Council
                                                                           The President
                                                                            H. SIMONET