CELEX: 31976R2931
Language: en
Date: 1976-11-29 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2931/76 of 29 November 1976 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for newsprint falling within subheading 48.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff (1977) and extending this quota to include certain other types of paper

3, 12. 76                         Official Journal of the European Communities                            No L 334/7
                                  COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 2931 /76
                                                of 29 November 1976
              opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff
              quota for newsprint falling within subheading 48.01 A of the Common Customs
               Tariff ( 1977) and extending this quota to include certain other types of paper
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                  imports from third countries during a representative
COMMUNITIES,                                                 reference period and to the economic outlook for the
                                                             year covered by the quota in question ;
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
 Economic Community, and in particular Articles 28
and 1 1 3 thereof,                                           Whereas, for the last three years for which complete
                                                             statistics are available, the imports of each of the
                                                             Member States amounted to the following percentages
                                                             of total imports of the products in question :
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ,
                                                                                              1973      1974      1975
Whereas the Community has undertaken to open an
annual duty-free Community tariff quota of 1 500 000         Benelux                         12.18     14.04     14.06
metric tons of newsprint falling within subheading           Denmark                          6.92      4.89      5.23
48.01 A ;                                                    Germany                         27.04     25.78     27.05
                                                             France                           9.46     13.46     11.86
                                                             Ireland                          0         2.12      2.02
Whereas, in view of present Community production             Italy                            0.32      0.42      0.50
capacity, that quantity is insufficient to meet antici­      United Kingdom                  44.08     39.29     39.28
pated import requirements ; whereas provision should
therefore be made for an autonomous supplementary
quota which, according to the estimates submitted,
may be fixed at present at 811000 metric tons ;              Whereas, in order to arrive at a proper assessment of
                                                             those statistics, however, it should be borne in mind
whereas the fact that this figure has been adopted for
the autonomous supplementary quota does not rule             that the opening of a Community tariff quota for the
out a readjustment during the quota period ; whereas a       enlarged Community may alter the pattern of trade of
                                                             Member States with third countries ; whereas, in view
Community tariff quota should therefore be opened            of the above and of the foreseeable trend on the
for 1977 for a total quantity of 2 311 000 metric tons
of the product in question ;                                 market in newsprint in general, and of production in
                                                             particular during 1977 the quota may be allocated
                                                             approximately in the following percentages :
Whereas provision should be made for extending the
tariff quota in question to include certain types of                  Benelux                              13-94
paper fulfilling all the conditions set out in the Addi­              Denmark                               6-63
tional Note to Chapter 48 except those relating to                    Germany                              32-92
watermarks ;                                                          France                               12-21
                                                                      Ireland                               2-24
                                                                      Italy                                 0-05
Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota                      United Kingdom                       32-01
should be ensured for all Community importers and
the rate of duty for the tariff quota should be applied
without interruption to all imports of the product in
question until the quota is exhausted ; whereas in the       Whereas, to take account of import trends for the
light of these principles, arrangements for the utiliza­     product concerned, the quota should be divided into
tion of the Community tariff quota based on an alloca­       two tranches, the first being allocated among the
tion among Member States would seem to be                    Member States and the second held as a reserve to
consistent with the Community nature of the quota ;          cover subsequently the requirements of Member States
whereas, in order that it may correspond as closely as       which have exhausted their initial shares ; whereas, to
possible to the actual trend of the market in the            give importers some degree of certainty and yet
product in question, allocation of the quota should be       enable Community production to be disposed of on
in proportion to the requirements of the Member              satisfactory terms, the first tranche of the quota should
States as calculated by reference to statistics on           be fixed at about 96 % of the full amount ;
 ---pagebreak---  No L 334/8                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                 3 . 12 . 76
 Whereas Member States may exhaust their initial                4. The Common Customs Tariff duty shall be
 shares at different rates ; whereas to provide for this        totally suspended within the limits of the above quota.
 eventuality and avoid disruption of supplies any
 Member State which has almost used up its initial
 share   should   draw   an   additional    share  from    the   5.   New Member States shall apply duties calculated
 reserve ; whereas each time its additional share is
                                                                in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Act
 almost exhausted a Member State             should draw a
                                                                of Accession to imports within the limits of the above
                                                                quota .
 further share, and so on as many times as the reserve
 allows ; whereas the initial and additional shares
 should be valid until the end of the quota period ;
 whereas this form of administration requires close                                         Article 2
 collaboration between the Member States and the
 Commission , which latter must be in a position to
                                                                 1.   The Community tariff quota referred to in
 keep account of the extent to which the quota has              Article 1 shall be divided into two tranches .
 been used up and to inform the Member States accord­
 ingly ;
                                                                2.    A first tranche of 2 187 000 metric tons shall be
Whereas if at a given date in the quota period a                allocated among the Member States. Member States'
 considerable quantity of a Member State's initial share        shares, which subject to Article 5 shall be valid from 1
 remains unused it is essential , to prevent a part of the      January until 31 December 1977, shall be as follows :
 Community tariff quota from remaining unused in
one Member State while it could be used in others ,                                                          (in metric ton*)
 that such State should return a significant proportion             Benelux                                     305   000
 thereof to the reserve ;                                           Denmark                                      145  000
                                                                    Germany                                     720   000
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium , the                         France                                      267   000
 Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of                  Ireland                                       49  000
 Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented               Italy                                           1 000
by the Benelux Economic Union , 'any transaction in                 United Kingdom                              700 000
respect of the administration of the shares allocated to
that economic union may be carried out by any one
of its members,                                                 3.    The second tranche, of 124 000 metric tons,
                                                                shall constitute the reserve .
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
                                                                                            Article 3
                          A rticle 1
                                                                1.    If 90 % or more of a Member State's initial share
                                                                as fixed in Article 2 (2), or of that share minus the
 1.    During the period from 1 January to 31                   portion returned to the reserve where Article 5 has
December 1977, a Community tariff quota of
                                                                been applied, it shall forthwith, by notifying the
2 311 000 metric tons shall be opened in respect of             Commission , draw a second share, to the extent that
newsprint falling within subheading 48.01 A of the              the reserve so permits, equal to 15% of its initial
Common Customs Tariff (').
                                                                share, rounded up as necessary to the next whole
                                                                number .
2. Member States may charge against this tariff
quota the other types of paper complying with the
definition of newsprint contained in the Additional             2.    If, after its initial share has been exhausted 90 %
Note to Chapter 48 , except as regards the criteria             or more of the second share drawn by a Member State
governing watermarks .                                          has been used up, that Member State shall, in the
                                                                manner and to the extent provided for in paragraph 1 ,
3 . Imports of newsprint shall not be charged                   draw a third share equal to 7-5 % of its initial share .
against this tariff quota if they are already free of
customs duties under other preferential tariff treat­           3.    If, after its second share has been exhausted
ment. Furthermore, imports of any other paper                   90 % or more of the third share drawn by a Member
referred to in paragraph 2 enjoying duty free exemp­            State has been used up, that Member State shall, in
tion under the said tariff quota shall not be charged           the manner and to the extent provided for in para­
against the indicative ceilings fixed under certain free        graph 1 , draw a fourth share equal to the third .
trade agreements .
(') Entry under this subheading is subject to conditions to be  This procedure shall apply until the reserve is
    determined by the competent authorities .                   exhausted .
 ---pagebreak--- 3 . 12. 76                         Official Journal of the European Communities                               No L 334/9
4. Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 , 2 and 3, Member             exceed the balance available, and to this end shall
States may draw lesser shares than those specified in         notify the amount of that balance to the Member State
those paragraphs if there are grounds for believing           making the last drawing.
that those specified may not be used in full . They
shall inform the Commission of their reasons for                                        Article 7
applying this provision .
                                                              1.    Member       States  shall   take    all    appropriate
                                                              measures     to  ensure   that   additional    shares  drawn
                        Article 4
                                                              pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that
Additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3 shall be        imports may be charged without interruption against
valid until 31 December 1977 .                                their accumulated share of the Community quota.
                                                              2.    Member States shall take all measures necessary
                        Article 5                             to ensure that the types of paper referred to in Article
The Member States shall return to the reserve , not           1 (2) included in this tariff quota are in fact intended
later than 1 October 1977, the unused portion of their        for the printing of newspapers, weekly papers or other
initial share which, on 15 September 1977, is in
                                                              periodicals of heading No 49.02, published at least 10
excess of 20 % of the initial amount. They may return         times per year.
a greater portion if there are grounds for believing          3 . Member States shall ensure that importers of the
that such portion may not be used in full .                   products in question established in their territory have
                                                              free access to the shares allocated to it.
Member States shall, not later than 1 October 1977,
notify the Commission of the total quantities of the          4. The extent to which a Member State has used up
 products in question imported up to and including 15         its shares shall be determined on the basis of imports
September 1977 and charged against the Community              of the products in question entered with the customs
tariff quota and of any portion of their initial shares       authorities for home use .
 returned to the reserve .
                                                                                        Article 8
                        Article 6
                                                              On receipt of a request from the Commission the
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares            Member States shall notify it of the importations
 opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2           charged against its share.
 and 3 and shall, as soon as it has been notified, inform
 each Member State of the extent to which the reserve                                   Article 9
 has been used up.
                                                              The Member States and the Commission shall coop­
 It shall inform the Member States, not later than 5          erate closely to ensure that this Regulation is
 October 1977, of the amount still in reserve after           complied with .
 amounts have been returned thereto pursuant to
 Article 5 .                                                                            Article 10
 It shall ensure that when a quantity exhausting the          This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
 reserve is drawn , the amount so drawn does not               1977 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
               States .
               Done at Brussels , 29 November 1976 .
                                                                            For the Council
                                                                              The President
                                                                        J. A. van KEMENADE