CELEX: 31974D0422
Language: en
Date: 1974-07-08 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 8 July 1974 authorizing the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands not to apply Community treatment to men's shirts, of cotton, or of mixed man-made fibres, and men's pyjamas, of cotton, falling within heading No ex 61.03 of the Common Customs Tariff originating in Romania and put into free circulation in the Federal Republic of Germany

13 . 8 . 74                       Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 223/7
                                                          II
                                     (Acts whose publication is not obligatory)
                                               COMMISSION
                                            COMMISSION DECISION
                                                   of 8 July 1974
              authorizing the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the
               Kingdom of the Netherlands not to apply Community treatment to men's
               shirts, of cotton or of mixed man-made fibres , and men's pyjamas, of cotton ,
               falling within heading No ex 61.03 of the Common Customs Tariff originating
               in Romania and put into free circulation in the Federal Republic of Germany
                                  (Only the French and Dutch texts are authentic)
                                                     (74/422/ EEC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                 and put into free circulation in the other Member
COMMUNITIES,                                                   States have already been authorized to an amount of
                                                               48 % of this quota ;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular the first para­          Whereas the request for an import licence to which
graph of Article 115 thereof ;                                 the application relates is for an amount of more than
                                                               42 % of the value of the quota opened in favour of
                                                               Romania whilst the price of the products concerned is
Having regard to the application under the first para­         52% to 75% less than the price on the Benelux
graph of Article 115 of the Treaty made on 1 July              markets ;
1974, and supplemented on 4 July 1974, by the
Governments of the Benelux countries by telex of the
Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the             Whereas the production of shirts has greatly decreased
European Communities, for authorization not to apply           in the Benelux countries and as a result factories have
Community treatment to men's shirts, of cotton or of           closed and workers have been dismissed ; whereas the
mixed man-made fibres, and men's pyjamas, of                   prices of imports originating in Eastern Europe are
cotton , falling within heading No ex 61.03 of the             generally about 50 % lower than comparable prices
Common Customs Tariff originating in Romania and               on the Benelux markets ; whereas the Member States
put into free circulation in the Federal Republic of           of the Benelux pursuant to the price clauses in their
Germany ;                                                      Trade Agreement with the countries of Eastern
                                                               Europe can take action against direct imports at prices
                                                               which are too low ; whereas prices are considered too
Whereas in support of the application the Nether­              low when they are at least 10 % below internal
lands     Government     asserted these    are  sensitive
                                                               prices ; whereas if no protective measures exist,
products, imports of which from Eastern Europe are             imports of these products by reason of free circulation
for economic reasons subject to a global quota ;               will seriously threaten the Benelux industry ;
whereas the global quota was exceeded by almost
36 % by the importation of products originating in
these countries and put into free circulation in the           Whereas the request for an import licence to which
other Member States ; whereas the 1974 quota opened            the application relates is for clothing, originating in
in favour of Romania has also been exhausted and               Romania and put into free circulation in the Federal
imports of the same products originating in Romania            Republic of Germany ; whereas imports of these
 ---pagebreak--- No L 223 / 8                            Official Journal of the European Communities                              13 . 8 . 74
 products into the Federal Republic of Germany are                 than the Federal Republic of Germany, and the
 admitted within the limits of the quantitative quota              Benelux governments have not claimed that such is
 provided for by the 1973 Trade Protocol between the               the case ;
 Federal Republic of Germany and Romania which
 was negotiated in accordance with the conclusions                 Whereas it is not possible to set in motion, at short
 obtained from the prior consultation provided for in              notice, the machinery for bringing about the neces­
 Title III of the Council Decision of 16 December                  sary cooperation from the Federal Republic of
 1969 ( J ) and adopted as a guide line for negotiations           Germany, where appropriate, over prices ;
 by the Council Decision of 14 March 1973 ;                       Whereas in these circumstances authorization should
 Whereas      this quota has been increased unilaterally           be given for the application of measures of protection,
 and for     reasons of contingency in 1973, and this              under the first paragraph of Article 1 1 5, subject to the
 increase    was the subject of prior consultation as              conditions laid down by the Commission Decision of
 provided     by the Council Decision of 19 December               12 May 1971 and in particular Article 1 (3) thereof, for
 1972 (2) ;    whereas the quota thus increased was                a limited period to enable the Commission, in consul­
                                                                   tation with the Member States concerned, to examine
 extended    in its existing form until 1974, after consulta­      the measures that should be taken to solve the diffi­
 tions in accordance with the aforementioned Council
 Decisions ;                                                       culties of the textile industry in the Benelux countries,
 Whereas this prior consultation involves such coordi­
                                                                   HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
 nation as will ensure the proper functioning and the
 strengthening of the Common Market, will take into
 account the legitimate interests of Member States as                                        A rticle 1
 regards both imports and the growth of exports and                The Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of
 will contribute towards the establishment of uniform
                                                                   Luxembourg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands are
 principles of common commercial policy in relation                authorized not to apply Community treatment to
 to the country in question ;
                                                                   imports of men's shirts of cotton or of mixed man­
 Whereas it can therefore be presumed that imports by              made fibres, and men's pyjamas, of cotton, falling
 the Federal Republic of Germany under the quota in                within heading No ex 61.03 of the Common Customs
 question will not be likely to obstruct the execution of          Tariff, originating in Romania and put into free circu­
 commercial policy measures taken by the other                     lation in the Federal Republic of Germany, for which
 Member States in accordance with the Treaty for the               the price charged to the consumer is at least 10%
 same products in relation to the same third country               lower than the price for similar products on the
 nor to lead to economic difficulties in these other               Benelux market, and in respect of which applications
 Member States ;                                                   for import licences were lodged after 10 June 1974.
 Whereas, however, from the information supplied by                                          Article 2
 the governments of the Benelux countries it appears
'that economic difficulties do exist in the clothing               This Decision shall apply until 31 October 1974.
 industry ; whereas low-priced imports of the products
 in question , originating in Romania and put into free                                      Article 3
 circulation in the Federal Republic of Germany, could
 give rise to further economic difficulties ;                      This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of
                                                                   Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the
 Whereas such economic difficulties are due to the
                                                                   Kingdom of the Netherlands.
 differences between measures of commercial policy, in
 particular as regards prices, which are applied by the
 Member States of Benelux on the one hand , and the                Done at Brussels, 8 July 1974.
 Federal Republic of Germany on the other, to imports
 of the products in question originating in and coming                                         For the Commission
 from Romania ;
                                                                                                    The President
 Whereas, however, these economic difficulties do not
 appear to be due to imports from Member States other                                         Francois-Xavier ORTOLI
 (') OJ No L 326 , 29 . 12 . 1969 , p. 39 .
 (2 ) OJ No L 299 , 31 . 12 . 1972, p. 46 .                        (3) OJ No L 121 , 3 . 6. 1971 , p. 26 .