CELEX: 51996PC0577
Language: en
Date: 1996-11-14
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) temporarily suspending all or some of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products (1997)

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                                 Brussels, 14.11 1996
                                                 COM(96)577 final
                                 Proposal for a
                      COUNCIL REGULATION (EC)
temporarily suspending all or some of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff
                     duties on certainfisheryproducts (1997)
                        (presented by the Commission)
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                                   EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
1. During the third quarter of this year, the Commission, assisted by the Economic Tariff Problems
   Group, has reviewed all the requests for temporary suspension of autonomous Common Customs
   Tariff duties presented to it by the Member States, including requests for extending suspensions at
   present in force.
2. The attached proposal concerns a number of fishery products.
   For industrial products, the proposals for Regulations temporarily suspending the autonomous
   Common Customs Tariff duties are also being prepared.
3. The requests for suspension relating to the above products were examined in the light of the criteria
   set out in the communication from the Commission to the Council and the Member States concerning
   autonomous tariff suspensions (see OJ C 235, 13.9.1989, p. 2).
   Following this review, the Commission considers that the suspension of duties is justified for the
   products listed in the Annex to the attached proposal of Regulation.
4. As seen from Article 1 of the above-mentioned proposal of Regulation, the period of validity of the
   proposed measure is 12 months.
                                                   Ï
 ---pagebreak---                                          '      ^Proposal" fera
                                 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No                 /96
                                              of              1996
               temporarily suspending some or all of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff
                                   duties on certain fishery products (1997)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 28 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Whereas the Community relies at present on imports from third countries for supplies of certain fishery
products; whereas it is in the interest of the Community to suspend partially or totally the customs duties
for these products; whereas, in order to avoid endangering the prospects for developing the production of
competitive products in the Community while ensuring that the industries concerned receive the necessary
supplies, it is advisable to adopt these suspension measures only from 1 January to 31 December 1997,
Whereas it is for the Community to decide to suspend these autonomous duties,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
                                                    Article 1
 1. From 1 January to 31 December 1997 the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on the products
listed in the Annex are hereby suspended at the level indicated for each product.
2. Imports of these products shall qualify for the suspension referred to in paragraph 1 only provided that
the free-at-frontier price laid down by the Member States, in accordance with Article 22 of
Council Regulation (EEC) No 3759/92 of 17 December 1992 on the common organization of the market
in fishery and aquaculture products,1 is not lower than the reference price fixed or to be fixed by the
Community for the products or categories of products in question.
                                                    Article 2
This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January Ï997.
        This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
               Done at        ,
                                                                                             For the Council
                                                                                                The President
1
  OJ No L 388, 31.12.1992, p. 1, as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1891/93 of 12.7.1993 (OJ No L 172,
15.7.1993, p.l).
 ---pagebreak---                                                          IMJNEX
                                                                                                                       Rate of
         CN c o d e & TARIC                                      Description                                         autonomous
                                                                                                                      duty (%)
0001     0302    65 20      Dogfish of the species Squalus           acanthias,     fresh, chilled or frozen
         0303    75 20
      ex0304     10 98 60
      ex0304     90 97 31
0002  ex0302 69 99 30       Sturgeons, fresh, chilled or frozen, for processing                      (a) (b)
      ex0303 79 96 30
0003  ex0302 69 99 40       Lump fish (Cyclopterus        lumpus)    with roe, fresh or chilled, for
                            processing (a)
0004  ex0302 69 99 50       Red Snapper {Lutjanus       purpureus),        fresh, chilled or frozen, for
      ex0303 79 96 40       processing       (a) (c)
0005  ex0302 70 00 11       Hard fish roes, fresh or chilled
      ex0302 70 00 91
0006  ex0303 10 00 10       Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus          spp.),      frozen and headless, for the
                            processing industry for manufacture into pastes or spreads (a)
0008  ex0304 20 55 34       Fillets and meat of hake of the genus Merluccius,                  excluding the                  8.5
      ex0304 20 58 44       species Merluccius      merluccius,      Merluccius     bilinearis      and   Merluccius
      ex0304 90 47 30       hubbsi,    in the form of industrial blocks, frozen, for processing
                             (a) (b)
0009  ex0304 20 85 10        Fillets and meat of Alaska pollack (Theragra                chalcogramma),     in the            8.5
      ex0304 90 61 10        form of industrial blocks, frozen, for processing                     (a) (b)
0010  ex0305 20 00 11        Hard fish roes, salted or in brine
      ex0305 20 00 19
0011  ex0306 19 90 10        Krill for processing        (a)
      ex0306 29 90 10
0022   exl604 11 00 20       Pacific salmon [Oncorhynchus          spp.),     for the processing industry for
       exl604 20 10 20       manufacture into pastes or spreads               (a)
 0023  exl604 30 90 10       Hard fish roes, washed, cleaned of adherent organs and simply salted
                             or in brine, for processing (a)
 0024  exl605 10 00 11       Crabs of the species 'King' (Paralithod.es              camchaticus),      'Hanasaki'
       exl605 10 00 19        {Paralithodes   brevipes),     'Kegani' (Erimacrus isenbecki),             'Queen' and
                              'Snow' (Chionoecetes spp.),         'Red' {Geryon quinquedens),           'Rough
                             stone' {Neolithodes asperrimus),             Lithodes antarctica,        'Mud' (Scylla
                             serrata),    'Blue' [Portunus      spp.),     simply boiled in water and
                             shelled, whether or not frozen, in immediate packings of a net
                             content of 2 kg or more
  (a)   Control of the use for this special purpose shall be carried out pursuant to the relevant Community
        provisions.
  (b)   The suspension shall apply to fish intended to undergo any operation unless they are intended to
        undergo exclusively one or more of the following operations:
        - cleaning, gutting, tailing, heading,
        - cutting (excluding filleting or cutting of frozen blocks),
        - sampling, sorting,
        - labelling,
        - packing,
        - chilling,
        - freezing,
        - deep freezing,
        - thawing, separation.
        The suspension is not allowed for products intended, in addition, to undergo treatment (or operations)
        qualifying for suspension where such treatment (or operations) is (are) carried out at retail or
        catering level. The suspension of customs duties shall apply only to fish intended for human
        consumption.
                                                                              )
 ---pagebreak--- (c) However, the suspension is not allowed where processing is carried out by retail or catering
    undertakings.
                                                           sT
 ---pagebreak---                                          FINANCIAL STATEMENT
1.   Budget heading involved : Chapter 12 Article 120
2.   Title of operation : Proposal for a Council Regulation temporarily suspending all or some of the
     autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products (1997).
3.   Legal basis : Article 28 of the EC Treaty.
4.   Objective: Suspension of the CCT duties for the above products.
5.   Measures aimed at prevention and protection: Checks on the end-use of some of the products
     covered by this Council Regulation will be carried out in accordance with Articles 291 to 304 of
     Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the implementation of the
     Community Customs Code.
6.   Cost :
     In relation to the previous year (for which the cost of the entire operation had been estimated at
     ECU 39 000 000), the following is proposed:
    - two products should be removed from the list of suspensions (CN 03038000 and 16053030) because
     for these products the customs duties were suspended definitively under the negotiations on
     Article XXIV.6 of the GATT;
    - the rate of the duty for "fillets and meat of hake" should be changed from 10% to 8.5%.
     It is difficult to estimate the cost owing to the lack of recent Community statistics and the accession
     of three new Member States for which no economic details are at present available.
     However, the present estimate, taking into account:
     - the most recent known EUROSTAT statistics (1994);
     - the period of validity of this Regulation (1.1.1997/31.12.1997);
     - the presence of three new Member States, the impact of which is estimated at about 15%, produces
     an increase of ECU 880 000, corresponding to the products removed from the list, and a loss of
     ECU 445 000 corresponding to the 1.5% decrease in the rate of duty for "fillets and meat of hake".
     This represents a ECU 435 000 reduction of duties not collected.
Estimated cost of the present operation (1.1.1997/3112.1997).
     The uncollected duties generated by the proposed operation can therefore be estimated as costing
     ECU 38 565 000, i.e. ECU 435 000 less than ECU 39 000 000 not collected under the previous
     operation (1 1.1996/31.12.1996).
REMARK
     The increase from the removal of the two products mentioned above applies only to this operation
      since the customs duties are always suspended under another operation. Seen overall, the
      amendments to the existing regulation would bring a total loss of revenue of ECU 445 000.
                                                     €
 ---pagebreak---                                   •»HKn\>: :"'V'M •:-..           ISSN0254-1475
                                                           COM(96) 577 final
                                              DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                  02 03 01
                                    Catalogue number : CB-CO-96-577-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-78-11513-4
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