CELEX: 31973R3508
Language: en
Date: 1973-12-18 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 3508/73 of the Council of 18 December 1973 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for preserved pineapples other than in slices, half slices or spirals, originating in developing countries

No L 358/ 124                        Official Journal of the European Communities                              28 . 12. 73
                              REGULATION (EEC) No 3508/73 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                  of 18 December 1973
              opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota
              for preserved pineapples other than in slices, half slices or spirals, originating in developing
                                                        countries
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,                        of the need to safeguard the interests of the asso­
                                                                 ciated countries in this field, to lay down for pre­
                                                                 served pineapples, other than in slices, half slices or
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro­               spirals special conditions consisting in a reduction of
pean Economic Community, and in particular Ar­                   the customs duty applicable to that product within
ticle 43 thereof;                                                the limits of a Community tariff quota ;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;
                                                                 Whereas the offer made by the Community includes
Having regard to the Opinion of the European                     a clause stating that the Community drew up the
Parliament;                                                      offer on the assumption that all the main industrial­
                                                                 ized countries which are members of the OECD
                                                                 would participate in granting preferences and would
Whereas in the Joint Declaration of Intent ( 1 ) on              make similar efforts in this direction ; whereas, more­
the development of trade relations with Sri-Lanka,               over, it is evident from the conclusions worked out
India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore, the Com­                in UNCTAD that this offer, while being of a tem­
munity declared its readiness to seek solutions to               porary nature, does not constitute a binding commit­
the problems which may arise in the field of trade               ment and, in particular, may be withdrawn wholly
with the countries referred to ;                                 or in part at a later date; whereas this possibility
                                                                 may be adopted, inter alia, with a view to remedying
Whereas in respect of several Asian countries of the             any unfavourable situations which might arise in
Commonwealth and particularly as regards Malaysia                the associated countries following the implemen­
the said preserved pineapples are an important                   tation of the generalized preference scheme ;
export product and the flow of trade in such prod­
ucts is likely to be changed as a result of the enlarge­
ment of the Community; whereas the system of                     Whereas tariff preferences have been applied as from
generalized tariff preferences may constitute a solu­            the second half of 1971 and whereas it is expedient
tion to the problems of this nature and whereas cer­             to continue to apply them throughout 1974 ;
tain forms of preserved pineapples should therefore
be included in the system of generalized preferences ;
                                                                 Whereas it is expedient, therefore, that the Com­
                                                                 munity should open for 1974 in respect of the said
Whereas, within the context of UNCTAD, the Euro­                 products, originating in the countries and territories
pean Economic Community offered to grant tariff                  listed in the Annex, a Community tariff quota lim­
preferences on certain processed agricultural prod­              ited to 2Q000 metric tons and at a customs duty of
ucts of Chapters 1 to 24 of the Common Customs                   12% , increased by the levy on sugar in the case
Tariff originating in developing countries ; whereas             where the sugar content exceeds 17% by weight;
the preferential treatment proposed in that offer con­
sists, in respect of certain goods which are subject
to the trade arrangements laid down in Regulation                Whereas, in accordance with Protocol No 23 to the
(EEC) No 1059/69, of a reduction in the fixed com­               Act of Accession (2), the generalized tariff preference
ponent of the charge applicable to such goods by                 scheme will be fully applicable in the new Member
virtue of that Regulation, and, in respect of prod­              States from 1 January 1974 ;
ucts which are subject to the single customs duty, of
a reduction in such duty; whereas preferential
imports of the products concerned could be effected              Whereas, for the said products, this scheme would,
without quantitative restrictions ; whereas it appears           however, involve the application in the new Member
appropriate, however, in view of the sensitiveness of            States in 1974 of customs duties higher than or very
the preserved fruit and vegetable sector generally and
0 OJ No L 73 , 27. 3 . 1972, p. 195.                              ( 2) OJ No L 73 , 27. 3 . 1972, p. 14.
 ---pagebreak---  28 . 12. 73                       Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 358/ 125
 close to those which will be applied by the new                       Italy                              2-0%
 Member States to non-member countries in general
                                                                       Denmark                            1-9%
 on the basis of the provisions of the abovementioned
 Act; whereas this situation would comply neither                      Ireland                            1-0%
with the spirit nor with the very nature of the general­
ized preference scheme; whereas, in order to main­                     United Kingdom                    69-2%
tain an equivalent preferential margin for these prod­
ucts also, reduced customs duties should be applied
 to them, in accordance with detailed rules based on          Whereas, without affecting the Community nature of
 the principle of maintaining, in the new Member              the tariff quota under consideration, it appears poss­
 States, a preference proportional to that which exists       ible to provide temporarily for a utilization scheme
 between the duties of the Common Customs Tariff              based on a single allocation among the Member
 and the duties given in Article 1 to this Regulation ;       States ; whereas, moreover, the allocation set out by
 whereas, with a view to granting the beneficiary             this Regulation in no way prejudices the possibility
 developing countries the best possible treatment, in         of adopting the general method of allocation of
accordance with the objectives of the preference              Community tariff quotas comprising the setting up
 scheme, the duties given in the abovementioned               of a reserve share; whereas at this transitional stage
Article 1 should also be applied wherever the duties          it appears feasible that such allocation could be made
calculated according to the abovementioned detailed           according to the percentage set out in the above
 rules prove to be higher than them;                          table ;
                                                              Whereas the percentage for the shares of the Member
Whereas the benefit of this tariff quota should be            States in the Community tariff quota, in view of
 reserved for products originating in the countries           its duration and its amount, does not appear in this
 and territories under consideration^ whereas to this         instance to compromise the equal access for Com­
end, the provisions concerning the definition of the          munity importers to Community tariff quotas;
concept of 'originating products' should be applied           whereas for this same reason it would appear expedi­
in respect of the Community to the products from              ent to allow each Member State to choose the system
the developing countries, for the period from 1               for administering its share;
January to 31 December 1974 as well as the provi­
sions derogating from the said definition of the con­
cept of originating products ;                                Whereas since the Kingdom of Belgium, the King­
                                                              dom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
                                                              Luxembourg are united in and represented by the
                                                              Benelux Economic Union, all transactions concern­
Whereas it is necessary to ensure equal and contin­
                                                              ing the administration of the share allocated to the
uous access for all Community importers to the above­
                                                              Benelux Economic Union may be carried out by
mentioned quota and the uniterrupted application              any one of its Members,
of the rate laid down for this quota to all imports
of the products concerned into all Member States
until this quota is used up; whereas, having regard
to the principles set out above, the Community
nature of the quota can be respected by allocating            HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
the Community tariff quota among Member States ;
whereas, moreover, to this end and in the context
of the utilization system, the actual charges against                                 Article 1
the quota may relate only to products which have
been entered for home use and which are ac­
companied by a certificate of origin ;                        1 . From 1 January to 31 December 1974, a Com­
                                                              munity tariff quota of 20 000 metric tons shall
                                                              be opened by the Community for the imports of
Whereas on the basis of the statistical data available
                                                             preserved pineapples other than in slices, half slices
                                                              or spirals, falling under the following subheadings
which cover only a relatively brief period and                of the Common Customs Tariff: ex 20.06 B II a) 5,
whereas they should be weighted on the basis of               ex 20.06 B II b) 5, ex 20.06 B II c) 1 cc) and ex 20.06
the estimates which may be made for the quota year,           B II c) 2. Within this tariff quota the customs duty
the percentage of the shares of the quota amount              shall be suspended at 12% with a charge on sugar
may be drawn up as follows :                                  for the said products with a sugar content exceeding
                                                              17% by weight.
          Germany                        20-5%
          Benelux                          4-9%               On importation into Denmark, Ireland and the United
                                                              Kingdom, there shall be applied to the above­
         France                            0-5%               mentioned products the customs duty obtained by
 ---pagebreak--- No L 358/ 126                           Official Journal of the European Communities                            28 . 12 . 73
multiplying, by a coefficient equal to the margin of               2. The extent to which the shares of Member States
preferences existing between the duty of 12°/o given               have been actually filled shall be determined on the
in the first subparagraph and the Common Customs                   basis of imports of the said goods which have been
Tariff duties applicable, the duties obtained by re­               entered for home use, and which are accompanied
ducing by 20% the difference between the lowest                    by a certificate of origin in accordance with the rules
duty applied on 1 January 1972 to the developing                   referred to in Article 1 (2).
countries set out in the Annex and the Common
Customs Tariff.                                                    3 . Goods may qualify for a tariff quota only if the
                                                                   certificate of origin referred to in paragraph 2 is
However, the duty of 12°/o given in the first subpara­             submitted before the date on which the levying of
graph shall be applied when the customs duty result­               duties is reintroduced.
ing from the abovementioned calculation is higher
than it.
                                                                                           Article 4
2. The benefit of this tariff quota shall be reserved
                                                                   Member States shall inform the Commission               at
for the products originating in the countries and
territories listed in the Annex. However, the imports              monthly intervals of imports of the products in
 already benefiting from exemption customs duties                  question actually charged against their shares. This
under another preferential tariff scheme granted by                information shall cover both the value expressed in
the Community shall not be charged to this quota.                  units of account and quantity expressed in metric
                                                                   tons .
For the purposes of implementing this Regulation
 the concept of originating products shall be that
                                                                                            Article 5
 laid down by the provisions of Commission Regu­
 lation (EEC) No 3614/73 ( 1), applicable to the prod­
 ucts benefiting from tariff preferences granted by                If the Community should find that the products
the Community to the developing countries for the                  benefiting under the arrangements provided for in
period from 1 January to 31 December 1974, taking                  Article 1 are being imported into the Community
 into account the exceptions made to these provisions              in quantities or at prices such as to put or be likely
  by Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3615/73 (2).                   to put Community producers of similar or ^directly
                                                                   competitive products at a serious disadvantage or to
                                                                   create     an  unfavourable    situation  in  associated
                           Article 2                               countries, the customs duties applied within the Com­
                                                                   munity may be reintroduced in part or in full for
 The Community tariff quota mentioned in Article                   imports of the products in question from the country
  1 shall be allocated in shares which in respect of                or countries or territory or territories which are the
 each Member State shall be of the amount indicated                 cause of such disadvantage. Such measures may also
 below .                                                            be taken in the event of a serious disdvantage, either
                                                                    actual or foreseeable, which is confined to a single
          Germany                  4 100 metric   tons
                                                                    region of the Community.
          Benelux                    980 metric   tons
                                                                                            Article 6
          France                     100 metric   tons
          Italy                      400 metric   tons              1 . In order to ensure that Article 5 is applied, the
          Denmark                    380 metric   tons
                                                                    Commission may, by way of a Regulation, reintro­
                                                                    duce Common Customs Tariff duties for a fixed
          Ireland                    200 metric   tons              period.
          United Kingdom          13 840 metric   tons
                                                                    2. If the Commission has acted at the request of
                                                                    a Member State, the former shall give its decision
                           Article 3                                within a maximum period of ten working days from
                                                                    the date of receipt of the request and shall inform
                                                                    the Member State of the action taken .
  1 . The Member States shall ensure free access to
  the share which has been allocated to them for im­
  porters of the products concerned who are established             3 . Each Member State may refer the measure taken
  on their territory.                                               by the Commission to the Council within a period
                                                                     of ten working days following the date it was noti­
                                                                     fied . The fact that the matter has been referred to
  (x) See p. 132 of this Official Journal.                           the Council shall not constitute the suspension of
  (a) See p. 183 of this Official Journal.                           the measure. The Council shall meet without delay.
 ---pagebreak--- 28 . 12. 73                      Official Journal of the European Communities                        No L 358/ 127
Acting on a qualified majority, it may amend or             up in connection with the common commercial
repeal the measure in question.                             policy pursant to Article 113 of the Treaty.
                       Article 7                                                   Article 8
The provisions of Articles 5 and 6 shall not preju­         This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
dice the application of the protective clauses drawn        1974.
             This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
             States .
             Done at Brussels, 18 December 1973.
                                                                                For the Council
                                                                                  The President
                                                                               J. CHRISTENSEN
 ---pagebreak--- No L 358/ 128                     Official Journal of the European Communities                              28 . 12. 73
                                                      ANNEX A
                  List of developing countries and territories enjoying generalized tariff preferences
                                            INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES
Afghanistan                             Honduras                                   Qatar
Algeria                                 India                                      Rwanda
Argentina                               Indonesia                                  Saudi Arabia
Bahamas                                 Iran                                       Senegal
Bahrain                                  Iraq                                      Sierra Leone
Bangladesh                              Ivory Coast                                Singapore
Barbados                                Jamaica                                    Somalia
Bhutan                                  Jordan                                     Sri Lanka
Bolivia                                  Kenya                                     Sudan
Botswana                                 Khmer Republic                            Swaziland
Brazil                                   Korea (South)                             Syria
Burma                                    Kuwait                                    Tanzania
Burundi                                  Laos                                      Thailand
Cameroon                                 Lebanon                                   Togo
Central African Republic                 Lesotho                                   Tonga
Chad                                     Liberia                                   Trinidad and Tobago
Chile                                    Libya                                     Tunisia
Colombia                                 Malagasy Republic                         Uganda
Congo, People's Republic of              Malawi                                    United Arab Emirates :
Costa Rica                               Malaysia                                        Abu Dhabi
Cuba                                     Maldive Islands                                 Dubai
Cyprus                                   Mali                                            Ras al Khaimah
Dahomey                                  Mauritania                                      Fujairah
Dominican Republic                        Mauritius                                      Ajman
Ecuador                                  Mexico                                          Sharjah
Egypt, Arab Republic of                  Morocco                                         Ummal Qaiwain
El Salvador                              Nauru                                      Upper Volta
Equatorial Guinea                        Nepal                                      Uruguay
Ethiopia                                 Nicaragua                                  Venezuela
Fiji                                     Niger                                      Vietnam, Republic of
Gabon                                     Nigeria                                   Western Samoa
Gambia                                    Oman                                      Yemen, People's Democratic
Ghana                                     Pakistan                                  Republic of
Guatemala                                 Panama                                    Yemen Arab Republic
 Guinea                                   Paraguay                                  Yugoslavia
Guyana                                    Peru                                      Zaire
Haiti                                     Philippines                               Zambia
 ---pagebreak--- 28 . 12 . 73                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                             No L 358/ 129
                                                     COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES
               dependent or administered, or for whose external relations Member States of the Community
                                          or third countries are wholly or partly responsible
               Afars and Issas (Territory of the)
               Angola (including Cabinda)
               Australian Antarctic Territory
               Belize
               Bermuda
               British Antarctic Territory
               British Indian Ocean Territory (Aldabra, Farquhar, Chagos Archipelago, Des Roches)
               British Pacific Ocean (x)
               Brunei                   »
               Cape Verde Islands
               Cayman Islands and Dependencies
               Christmas Island
               Cocos (Keeling) Islands
               Comoro Archipelago
               Corn Islands and Swan Islands
              Falkland Islands and Dependencies
              French Polynesia
              French Southern and Antarctic Territories
              Gibraltar
              Heard Island and MacDonald Islands
              Hong Kong
              Leeward Islands (2)
              Macao
              Mozambique
              Netherlands Antilles
              New Caledonia and Dependencies
              Norfolk Islands
              Pacific Islands administered by the United States of America or under United States trusteeship (3)
              Papua-New Guinea
             Portuguese Guinea
              Portuguese Timor
             St Helena (including Ascension, Gough Island, and Tristan da Cunha)
              Saint Pierre and Miquelon
             Sao Tome and Principe
             Seychelles (including Amirantes)
             Sikkim
             Spanish territories in Africa
             Surinam
             Territories for which New Zealand is responsible ( Cook Islands, Niuwe Island, Tokelau Islands
             and Ross Dependency)
             Turks and Caocos Islands
             Virgin Islands of the United States (St Croix, St Thomas, St John, etc.)
             Wallis and Futuna Islands
             Windward Islands (4)
             Note : The above lists may be amended subsequently to take account of changes in the inter­
                         national status of countries or territories .
             (L) Gilbert and Ellice Islands , British Solomon Islands, New Hebrides Condominium, and Pitcairn Islands .
             (2) Antigua, Montserrat, St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, British Virgin Islands.
             ( 8) The Pacific Islands administered by the United States of America include Guam, American Samoa (including Swain's
                  Island), Midway Islands, Johnston and Sand Islands, Wake Island and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (the
                  Caroline, Marianas and Marshall Islands).
             (4) Dominica, Grenada , St Lucia , St Vincent.