CELEX: 31976R3041
Language: en
Date: 1976-12-09 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 3041/76 of 9 December 1976 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for cotton yarn falling within heading No 55.05 of the Common Customs Tariff, originating in Malta (1977)

20. 12. 76                         Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 350/49
                                     COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3041/76
                                                  of 9 December 1976
               opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota
               for cotton yarn falling within heading No 55.05 of the Common Customs Tariff,
                                               originating in Malta (1977)
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                        duty in respect of the iproduots concerned; whereas
                                                                 to comply with the special provisions of the said
                                                                Protocol, separate arrangements should be made for
                                                                Member States of the Community as originally con­
                                                                stituted on the one hand, and for the new Member
 Having regand to "the Treaty establishing the Euro­            States on the other;
 pean Economic Community, and in particular Article
 113 thereof,
                                                                Whereas, since 1 January 1974, Malta has been
                                                                granted treatment no less favourable than that en­
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,             joyed by countries eligible for the generalized tariff
                                                                preferences ; whereas to this end therefore customs
                                                                duties should 'be totally suspended and the quota
                                                                volume increased to 1 079 metric tons for 1977;
 Whereas the Agreement between the European Eco­                whereas, however, the Community has already
 nomic Community and Malta (*), signed on 5 Decem­              opened a duty-free tariff quota of 1 240 metric tons
 ber 1970, and the Protocol ilaying down certain pro­           for the products in question for 1976; whereas
 visions concerning that Agreement as a result of the           therefore the quota volume should be held at this
 accession of new Member States to the European                 level and the difference between these volumes
Economic Community (2), provide for the opening                 should be allocated to the two groups of Member
by the Community of an annuail Community tariff                 States;
quota of 910 metric tons of cotton yarn, not put up
for retail sale, falling within heading No 55.05 of the
Common Customs Tariff, originating in Malta;                    Whereas, it is in particular necessary to ensure for all
whereas, pursuant to iflhe joint declaration annexed            Community importers equal and uninterrupted access
to this Protocol, the tariff quota should be allocated          to the abovementioned quota and uninterrupted
among the Member States 'as follows : 750 metric tons           application of the rate laid down for that quota to
for the Community as originally constituted and                 all imports of the product concerned into all Member
160 metric tons for the new Member States ; whereas             States until the quota has been used up ; whereas,
the first stage of the Agreement ends on 30 June 1977          having regard to the principles mentioned above, the
and, pursuant to Annex I to the Agreement, the pro             Community nature of the quota can be respected
rata temporis akuse would apply to the volume of               by allocating 'the Community tariff quota among the
the quota; whereas the Community intends to main­              Member States ; whereas, in order to reflect more
tain its trading relations with Ma'lta; whereas the            accurately the actual development of the market in
provisions governing the second stage should not be            the product concerned, such allocation should be in
less favourable than those laid down for the first;            proportion to the needs of the Member States, as­
whereas in order not to disrupt trading patterns for           sessed 'by reference to both the statistics of each
the products in question, the Community tariff quota           State's imports of the said goods from Malta over
should be opened for the whole of 1977; whereas,               a representative period and the economic outlook
pursuant to Annex I to the said Agreement, the quota           for the quota period concerned ;
duty is equal to 30% of the Common Customs Tariff
                                                               Whereas, during the last three years for which statis­
                                                               tics are available, the corresponding imports by each
                                                               of the Member "States represent the following per­
(*) OJ No L 61 , 14. 3. 1971 , p. 2.                           centages of the imports into the Community, frooi
(*) OJ No L 111, 28. 4. 1976, p. 3.                            Malta, of the products concerned :
 ---pagebreak--- No L 350/50                        Official Journal of the European Communities                              20. 12. 76
                             1973       1974      1975
                                                              which must, in particular, be atble to observe the ex­
                                                              tent to which the quota amount is used and inform
Germany                      45-5      30-1       13-7        Member States thereof;
Benelux                      34-8      39-7       54-7
France                        8-0      23-7       14-0        Whereas if, at a specified date in the quota period,
                                                              a considerable balance remains in one or other Mem­
Italy                        11-7        6-5      17-6        ber State it is essential that that Member State pays
                                                              a large amount of it back into the reserve, in order
Denmark                       —
                                         0-3       —
                                                              to avoid a part of the Community quota remaining
                                                              unused in one Member State when it could be used
Ireland                       1-0        2-7      12-5        in others;
United Kingdom               99-0       97-0      87-5
                                                              Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom
                                                              of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxem­
Whereas in view of these factors of the foreseeable           bourg are united in and represented by the Benelux
development during 1977 of the market for the prod­           Economic Union, any measure concerning the ad­
ucts in question and in particular of the estimates           ministration of the quota shares allocated to chat
submitted by certain Member States, initial quota             economic union may be carried out by any of its
shares may consequently be fixed approximately as              members,
follows :
        Germany                              56-5
        Benelux                              25-5              HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
        France                                7-0
        Italy                                11-0
        Denmark                               1-0
                                                                                       Article 1
        Ireland                              11-0
        United Kingdom                       88-0              1 . From 1 January until 31 December 1977, a tariff
                                                               quota of 1 240 metric tons shall be opened in the
Whereas, in order to take into account import trends           Community for cotton yarn, not put up for retail t
                                                               sale, falling within heading No 55.05 of the Common
for the products concerned in the different Member             Customs Tariff, originating in Malta.
States, the quota amounts should be divided into
two instalments, the first instalments feeing allocated
among the Member States and the second forming                 2. Within the limits of this tariff quota the Common
reserves intended ultimately to cover the require­             Customs Tariff duties shall be totally suspended.
ments of the Memiber States which have used up
their initial quota shares ; whereas, in order to ensure
a certain degree of security for importers in each             This suspension shall (be fully applied in the new
                                                               Member States.
Member State, the first instalments of the quotas
should be determined at a level which, under present
circumstances, may be approximately 70% of the                 3 . An amount of 1 046 metric tons shall be allocated
quota amounts ;                                                to the Member States of the Community as originally
                                                               constituted.
Whereas the initial quota shares of the Member States
may be used up at different times ; whereas, in order          4. An amount of 194 metric tons shall be allocated
to take this fact into account and avoid any break in          to the new Member States.
continuity, it is important that any Member State
having used up almost the whole of its initial quota
share should draw an additional quota shiare from
the reserve ; Whereas, this must be dione by each                                      Article 2
Member State as and when each of its additional
quota shares is almost entirely used up, and repeated          1 . A first instalment, amounting to 730 metric tons
as many times as the reserve allows; whereas the               of the amount specified in Article 1 (3), shall be allo­
initial and additional quota shares must be available          cated among the Member States of the Community
for use until the end of the quota period; whereas             as originally constituted ; the shares, Which subject to
this method of administration calls for close cooper­          Article 5 are valid until 31 December 1977, shall be
 ation between Member States, and the Commission,              as follows :
 ---pagebreak---    20. 12. 76                           Official Journal of the European Communities                            No L 350/51
           Germany                  413 metric tons,                                         Article 4
           Benelux                  186 metric tons,
           France                    51 metric tons,                Each of the additional shares drawn pursuant to
           Italy                     80 metric tons.                Article 3 shall ibe valid until 31 December 1977.
  The second instalment of 316 metric tons shall con­
  stitute the relevant reserve.                                                              Article 5
  2. A first instalment, amounting to 140 metric tons               Member States shall return to the reserve, not later
  of the amount mentioned in Article 1 (4), shall be               than 1 October 1977, the unused portion of their
  allocated among the new Member States ; the shares,              initial share which, on 15 September 1977, is in
  which subject to Article 5 are valid until 31 Decem­             excess of 20% of the initial amount. They may re­
  ber 1977, shall be as follows :                                  turn a greater portion if there are grounds for be­
                                                                   lieving that such quantity may not 'be used in full.
           Denmark                    2 metric tons,
           Ireland                   15 metric tons,               Member States shall, not later than 1 October 1977,
           United Kingdom          123 metric tons.                notify the Commission of the total imports of the
                                                                   product concerned effected up to 15 September 1977
 The second instalment of 54 metric tons shall con­                inclusive, and charged against the Community quota
  stitute the relevant reserve.                                    and, where appropriate, the proportion of their ini­
                                                                   tial share that is being returned to the reserve.
                           Article 3
                                                                                             Article 6
  1 . If 90% or more of the initial share of a Member
 State, as laid down in Article 2, or 90% of that share           The Commission shall keep account of the shares
 less the amount returned into the reserve, where the             opened by Member States in accordance with Articles
 provisions of Article 5 have been applied, has been              2 and 3 and shall inform each of them of the extent
 exhausted, that Member State shall proceed without               to which the reserves have been used as soon as it
 delay, by notifying the Commission, to draw a second             received the notifications .
 share equal to 15% of its initial share, rounded
 up to the next unit where appropriate, to the extent             The Commission shall, not later than 5 October
 that the amount in the relevant reserve allows .
                                                                  1977, notify Member States of the amount in the
                                                                  reserves after the return of shares pursuant to Article
 2. If, after its initial share has been exhausted, 90%           5.
 or more of the second share drawn by a Member
 State has been used, that Member State shall, in                 The Commission shall ensure that any drawing
 accordance with the conditions laid down in para­                which uses up any reserve is limited to the balance
 graph 1 , proceed without delay to draw a third                  available and, for this purpose, shall specify the
 share equal to 7-5% of its initial share, rounded up             amount thereof to the Member State which makes
to the next unit where appropriate, to the extent                 the final drawing.
 that the amount in the reserve allowis.
                                                                                            Article 7
 3. If, after its second share has been exhausted, 90%
or more of the third share drawn by a Member State
has been used, that Member State shall proceed, in                1 . Member States shall take all appropriate measures
the same way, to draw a fourth share equal to the                to ensure that, when additional shares are drawn
third.                                                            pursuant to Article 3 , it is possible for charges to be
                                                                  made without interruption against their accumulated
This process shall be applied until the reserves are              shares of the Community quota.
exhausted .
                                                                 2. Member States shall ensure that importers of
4. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 1 ,              the product concerned established in their territory
                                                                 have free access to the shares allocated to them.
2 and 3, the Member States may proceed to draw
shares smaller than those fixed in those paragraphs,
if there is reason to believe that they might not be             3 . Memlber States shall charge imports of the said
used up. They shall inform the Commission of the                 goods against their share as and when the goods are
reasons which led them to apply this (paragraph.                 entered for home use.
 ---pagebreak--- No L 350/52                        Official Journal of the European Communities                         20. 12. 76
4. The extent to which a Member State has used up                                    Article 9
its share shall be determined on the basis of the
imports charged in accordance with paragraph 3 .              The Member States and the Commission shall
                                                              cooperate closely in order to ensure that this
                                                              Regulation is observed.
                       Article 8
                                                                                     Article 10
On receipt of a request from the Commission, Mem­
ber States shall inform it of imports actually charged        This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
against their shaires.                                        1977.
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States.
              Done at Brussels, 9 December 1976.
                                                                              For the Council
                                                                                The President
                                                                              P.J. J.MERTENS