CELEX: 51983PC0615
Language: en
Date: 1983-10-20
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for prepared or preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Tunisia (1984) (submitted to the Council by the Commission)

ARCHIVES HISTORIQUES
DE LA COMMISSION
COLLECTION RELIEE DES
DOCUMENTS "COM"
COM (83) 615
Vol. 1983/0226
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Conformément au règlement (CEE, Euratom) n° 354/83 du Conseil du 1er février 1983
concernant l'ouverture au public des archives historiques de la Communauté économique
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p. 1), tel que modifié par le règlement (CE, Euratom) n° 1700/2003 du 22 septembre 2003
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In accordance with Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 354/83 of 1 February 1983
concerning the opening to the public of the historical archives of the European Economic
Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (OJ L 43, 15.2.1983, p. 1), as
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file have been declassified in conformity with Article 5 of the aforementioned regulation.
In Übereinstimmung mit der Verordnung (EWG, Euratom) Nr. 354/83 des Rates vom 1.
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Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft und der Europäischen Atomgemeinschaft (ABI. L 43 vom 15.2.1983,
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 ---pagebreak--- COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                                            COM( 83)      615 f i n a l
                                                            Brussels,         20 Oct ober 1983
                                   Proposal for a
                             COUNCIL REGULATION_(EEC)
     opening,     allocating   and p r o v i d i n g f o r t h e a d m i n i s t r a t i o n of
      Community t a r i f f  quotas f o r p r e p a r e d o r p r e s e r v e d s a r d i n e s
       fa llin g   w ithin  subheading 1 6 . 0 4 D of t h e Common Customs
                   T a riff and o r i g i n a t i n g in Tu n is ia ( 1 9 84 )
                 (submitted to the Council by the Commission)
  COM(83) 615 f i n a l
 ---pagebreak---                         EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
 1.  The 1978 Agreement between the Community and Tunisia provides that
      prepared and preserved sardines originating in this country may be
     admitted duty free into the Community on condition that certain minimum
     prices are respected. The periods and the technical rules for application of
     this  system   must be fixed by an exchange of letters between the
     contracting parties. Since this exchange of letters has never taken place,
     the Community from 1 January 1978 applied a Community tariff quota
     regime which takes the interests involved into account and which enables
     the provisions of the 1978 Agreement relating to prepared and preserved
     sardines to operate.
2 .  The Commission is proposing that the Council should extend the tariff
     quota regime and should therefore approve the attached proposal for
     Regulation opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a
     duty free Community quota tariff of 100 tonnes in respect of prepared and
     preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common
    Customs Tariff originating in Tunisia.
    The tariff quota shall apply from 1 January to 31 December 1984.
    This is the subject of the annexed proposal.
3.  The proposal for Regulation opening this quota provides - as is customary -
    for the division of the quota volume into two instalments, the first being
    allocated among the Member States as quota shares, the second being held
    as a reserve.
    The allocation of the volume of the first instalment of the quota should, in
    the absence of significant imports in recent years, be based on a s cale
    which takes account of the demand in Member States for the product in
    question.
 ---pagebreak---                           -3-
IMPORTATION OF PREPARED AND CONSERVED SARDINES
               ORIGINATING IN TUNISIA
  Member             (in tonnes)
  States
           1978      1979        1980 1981  1982
  BX      -          -           -    -     -
  DK      -          -           -    -     -
  D       -          -           -    -     -
  GR      -          -           -    -     -
  F        -         50          3    -      14
  IRL       -        -           -    -     -
  IT        -        -           -    -     -
  UK        -         -           -    -     -
  C.E.      -         50          3    -      14
 ---pagebreak---                                                    Proposal for a
                                       COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC)
                opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for
                prepared or preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs
                                          Tariff and originating in Tunisia (1984)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                          calculated, on the one hand, by reference to the statistics
                                                                   for imports from Tunisia over a representative reference
                                                                  period and, on the other hand, by reference to the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             economic outlook for the quota period in question;
 Economic Community, and in particular Article 113
 thereof,
                                                                  Whereas, during the last three years for which statistics
                                                                  are available, the corresponding imports into each of the
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                 Member States represent the following percentages of
                                                                  imports into the Community from Tunisia of the
Whereas the Cooperation Agreement between the                     products concerned:
Community and Tunisia (') provides that prepared and
preserved sardines, falling within subheading 16.04 D of
the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Tunisia,                       Member States                    1980      1981    1982
may be imported into the Community free of duty;
                                                                   Benelux                                    —          _
whereas the detailed arrangements must be fixed by an
exchange of letters between the Community and Tunisia;             Denmark                                    —          —         _
whereas, since this exchange of letters has not yet taken         Germany
                                                                  Greece
place, it is advisable to renew until 31 December 1984 the
                                                                   France                                   1ÔÔ         —       1ÔG
Community arrangements which were applied in 1983                                                                               (= 14 ,
                                                                                                          (tonnes)
                                                                                                            = 3 1               to nn es )
whereas it is advisable to open a Community tariff quota,
for the importation into the Community of the products            Ireland                                     —         —        —
in question of 100 tonnes free of duty; whereas this tariff       Italy                                       —         —        —
quota is to apply from 1 January 1984 until either the             United Kingdom                             —         —        —
conclusion of the exchange of letters provided for in
Article 18 of the Cooperation Agreement between the
Community and Tunisia, or until such time as
Community arrangements for imports of the products in             Whereas these data cannot be considered as
question are applied but until 31 December 198 4at the            representative and cannot serve as a basis for allocation of
latest;                                                           the quota among the Member States; whereas it is
                                                                  difficult to forecast the Member States’ imports for 198 4
                                                                  because of the absence of any pattern in previous years;
                                                                  whereas, in order that the quota may be allocated fairly,
                                                                  the initial quota shares may be fixed approximately at the
                                                                  following percentages:
                                                                           Benelux                                     8
                                                                           Denmark                                    4
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure for all                    Germany
                                                                           Greece                                    ¥
Community importers equal and uninterrupted access to                       F ranee                                 50
the abovementioned quota and uninterrupted application                     Ireland                                    2
of the rate laid down for that quota to all imports of the                 Italy-                                     2
products concerned into all Member States until the                        United Kingdom                            16
quota has been used up; whereas, having regard to the
above principles, the Community nature of the quota can
be respected by allocating the Community tariff quota             Whereas, in order to take into account import trends for
among the Member States; whereas, in order to reflect as          the products concerned in the various Member States,
accurately as possible the true trend of the market in the        each of the quota amounts should be divided into two
products in question, such allocation should be in                 instalments, the first being shared among the Member
proportion to the requirements of the Member States,              States and the second constituting a reserve to cover at a
                                                                  later date the requirements of the Member States which
(') OJ No L 265, 27. 9. 1978, p. 5.                               have used up their initial quota shares; whereas, in order
 ---pagebreak---                                                              -2-
to give importers in each Member State a certain degree of      2.     A first instalment, amounting to 50 tonnes of the
security, the first instalment of the Community quota           Community tariff quota referred to in Article 1, shall be
might, under the circumstances, be fixed at 50% of the          allocated among the Member States; the shares, which
 quota volume;                                                  subject to Article 5 shall be valid until the end of the
                                                                period specified in Article 1, shall be as follows:
Whereas the Member States’ initial shares may be used up
                                                                                                               (tonnes)
at different times; whereas, in order to take this fact into
account and avoid any break in continuity, any Member                   Benelux                                      ^
State which has almost used up its initial quota share                  Denmark                                       2
should draw an additional share from the reserve;                       Germany                                       8
whereas this must be done by each Member State as and                    Greece
when each of its additional shares is almost used up, and                France
repeated as many times as the reserve allows; whereas the               Ireland                                       1
initial and additional shares must be valid until the end of            Italy                                         1
the quota period; whereas this method of administration                 United Kingdom                                8
requires close cooperation between the Member States
and the Commission, and the latter must be in a position
to monitor the extent to which the quota volume has been        3.     The second instalment of 50 tonnes shall constitute
used up and to inform the Member States thereof;                the reserve.
Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a                                         Article 3
substantial quantity of an initial share remains unused in
any Member State, it is essential that that Member State
should return a significant proportion to the reserve to        1.     If 90 % or more of a Member State’s initial share as
prevent a part of any tariff quota from remaining unused        specified in Article 2 (2), or 90 % of that share minus the
in one Member State when it could be used in others;            portion returned to the reserve where Article 5 has been
                                                                applied, has been used up, then, to the extent permitted
                                                                by the amount of the reserve, that Member State shall
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of           forthwith, by notifying the Commission, draw a second
the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg               share equal to 15 % of its initial share, rounded up where
are united within and jointly represented by the Benelux        necessary to the next unit.
Economic Union, any operation relating to the
administration of the quota shares allocated to that
economic union may be carried out by any of its                 2.     If, after one of its initial shares has been used up,
members,                                                        90% or more of the second share drawn by a Member
                                                                State has been used up, then, to the extent permitted by
                                                                the amount of the reserve, that Member State shall, in
                                                                accordance with the conditions laid down in paragraph 1,
                                                                draw a third share equal to 7-5% of its initial share,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:                                    rounded up where necessary to the next unit.
                                                                3.     If, after one of its second shares bas been used up,
                          Article 1
                                                                90 % or more of the third share drawn by a Member State
                                                                has been used up, that Member State shall, in accordance
From 1 January 198^ until the conclusion or the exchange        with the conditions laid down in paragraph 1, draw a
of letters referred to in Article 18 of the Cooperation         fourth share equal to the third.
Agreement between the Community and Tunisia, until
such time as Community import arrangements are                  This process shall continue until the reserve is used up.
applied or until 31 December 1984, whichever shall be
the earliest, a duty-free Community tariff quota of 100         4.     By way of derogation from paragraphs 1,2 and 3, a
tonnes shall be opened, for imports into the Community
                                                                Member State may draw shares smaller than those fixed
of Nine, of prepared or preserved sardines falling within       in those paragraphs if there is reason to believe that they
subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs Tariff and             might not be used up. It shall inform the Commission of
originating in Tunisia.
                                                                its reasons for applying this paragraph.
Within the Limits of these t a r i f f quotas, the
Hellenic Republic shall apply duties calculated
in accordance with the relevant provisions in the
1979 Act of Accession and Regulation (EEC)
No 1080/83 (1).                                                                            Article 4
                         A rticle 2
1.     The tariff quota referred to in Article 1 shall be       The additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3 shall be
divided into two instalments.                                   valid until the end of the period specified in Article 1.
Cl ) 0J Nd~ L 1 2 0 , 6 . 5 . 1 9 8 3 , p . 1 .
 ---pagebreak---                                                          -3 -
                           Article 5                           pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that
                                                               imports may be charged without interruption against
 The Member States shall return to the reserve, not later      their accumulated shares of the tariff quota.
 than 1 October 198 4-such unused portion of their initial
 share as, on 15 September 198 4 is in excess of 20% of        2.    The Member States shall ensure that importers of
 the initial volume. They may return a larger quantity if      the products in question                             have
 there are grounds for believing that this quantity may not    free access to the shares allocated to them.
 be used.
                                                               3.    The extent to which a Member State has used up its
 The Member States shall notify the Commission, not later      shares shall be determined on the basis of the imports of
 than 1 October 1984, of the total quantities of the           the products in question originating in Tunisia and
products in question imported up to 15 September 198 4         entered with customs authorities for free circulation.
 and charged against the tariff quota and of any quantity
 of the initial shares returned to the reserve.
                           Article 6                                                    Article 8
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2 and 3       At the Commission’s request, the Member States shall
and, as soon as it is notified, shall inform each Member       inform it of imports of the products concerned actually
                                                               charged against their shares.
State of the extent to which the reserve has been
used up.
It shall inform the Member States not later than 5 October
1984, of the amount in the reserve after quantities have                                Article 9
been returned thereto pursuant to Article 5.
It shall ensure that the drawing which exhausts any            The Member States and the Commission shall cooperate
reserve does not exceed the balance available and, to this     closely to ensure that this Regulation is complied with.
end, notify the amount of that balance to the Member
State making the last drawing.
                          Article 7                                                    Article 10                  '
1.     The Member States shall take all measures               This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
necessary to ensure that additional shares drawn               198 4 .
               This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
               States.
               Done at Brussels,
                                                                               For the Council
                                                                                The President