CELEX: 51976PC0461
Language: en
Date: 1976-09-08
Title: Proposal for a REGULATION (EEC) OF THE COUNCIL opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for dried figs falling within subheading ex 08.03 B of the Common Customs Tariff, originating originating in Spain (1977)#Proposal for a REGULATION (EEC) OF THE COUNCIL opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for dried grapes falling within subheading ex 08.04 B I of the Common Customs Tariff, originating in Spain (1977) (submitted to the Council by the Commission)

ARCHIVES HISTORIQUES
DE LA COMMISSION
COLLECTION RELIEE DES
DOCUMENTS "COM"
COM (76) 461
Vol. 1976/0140
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 ---pagebreak--- COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
      !                                                   COM(76)461 endelig udg.
                                                          Brussels . 8 September 1976
                                 • |                                               .
        ( .                        -
                                                                        /
                               •     . Proposal for a
                       / REGULATION (EEC) CF TH E COUNCIL •                 ,
           opening ,, allocating and       providing for the administration
           of a Community' tariff quota for dried figs falling within
                    \                                                         ;
           subheading ex 08.03 B of the Common Customs Tariff,
                                                            orignatig
          originating in Spam ( 1977 )
                       ;               Proposal
                                                i <
                                                  for a
                                       Proposal for a
                                                                      ■         "
                            REGULATION ( EEC ) OF THE COUNCIL
                         .■
            opening , el locating and providing for the administration
            of a Community tariff quota for dried grapes falling
            within subheading ex 08.04 B I of the Common Customs
            Tariff / originating in Spain ( 1977 )                                i
               ( submitted to the Council by the Commission )
                             >                '         '                 >
                                                                            /
 C0M(76 ) 461 ^ inal
 ---pagebreak---                                     EAPLAÏÏATCRÏ MÎM-'OR /JHOTJI.I
    1 . Artiole 2 of the Agreement at preaont in force between "the European
  • Community and Spain , r-sad wit h Articles 2 and 9 of Annex I thereto ,
    provider) for tho opening of Community tariff quotas for the importation
    into the Community of the following product a , originating in Spain , at
   the quota duties speoified below t
   CCT Hoading No        Produot             Annual Volume           Quota Duty
   ex 06.03 B          Certain dried                 800 t         30% of the CCT duty
                       figa
       08,0d B I       Certain dried             1   700 t         Exempt
                       grapes
    2.    The Community opened negotiations with Spain with a view to
      concluding an additional Protocol to the Agreement of 1970 .
                     However , in new of the present state of theGe negotiations ,
 it is by no means certain that the Protocol oould enter into force on
 1 January 197 7 but rather on & later date which might well be within the
 first half of 197 7* •
3 » l'n view of tli9 foregoing, tho Commission believes that the possible
necessity should be provided for of opening tariff quotas , for 1977, for
the goods in question, in favour of Spain . Consequently, the tariff
quotas for these produots should be opened by 1 January 1977 and therefore
approved by the Counoil before 1 November 197 6 » Aooordinglj"-, it ia neoessary
to initiate immediately the prooedux*e for opening the relevant tariff quotas .
 ---pagebreak---                                                - 2 -
    However , in view of the possible entry into force of this Protocol it
    ie pronosod to oonfino 'the inT^d
             *
                                                validity of thou * Oomrmmity tariff '
    quotas for tho year .197 7 to the period not . covered by the Protocol .
           Moreover , as re^ardo agricultural products , the Ilegulationn opening
   the relevant Community tariff quotas must be based on .ArOiole 43 of the
   Ei5C Treaty , which means that the European Parliament mot be consulted .
   The time which the procedure for approving these Hemulations will take
  must therefore be borne in mind .
          This in the object of the proposals annexed hereto .
 A*       Thg Rcy-'ulabionri provide , in the usual way , for tho splitting up of
 the tariff volumes into two parts , the first of which will bo allocated
 amon,? the Member States as quota shares and tho second will be kept as
 a reserve .
5.       The allocation of the first part of the quota for dried ,<;*rnpes
 ( OB.CVJ B !f ) has been undertaken according to tho rules generally applied
hitherto .         'Pbe total imports of nach j>1emner State for 197 3 to .1975 have
been expressed as a proportion of total Community imports over the sar.io
period . The resulting percentages have been applied State by State to the
volume of the first part , th^last digit of the number of motrio tons beiitg
rounded off ,
6*      However , it does not seem appropriate to apply this rule to the tariff
quota for dried figs ( ex 00.03 B ) since :
                                                             »                 . »
        ( a) fc here have "been no more than minimal imports into a sin/tie Member
               State and that only m one year ;                          ...
       ( b ) other Member States imported none at all ;            \               • ;
       ( o ) total Community .imports are lower than the agreed tariff quota
               volume:'
               volume f '                ^
      ([ d ) it is difficult to foréoast future imports .
                                                                                      /.
 ---pagebreak---                                                     - 3 -
          Ifn or»lor n<jv«i4ih»l«sn to al.loao.ttt the quoin, volume £:\x, r!,y <vwK the
 i 'DI 'ibor G U .tohr a<rordin.<? to their respective si55es f the Commit 13 ion woi'kr;
 on th<3 o.Bnurnnii on that in tbi « exceptional oa.se the Momber Stn.tes uhould
pj?.rfcioio«.t « equally ii the tariff quota .         This participation aims to \
hal.rtjioe the Member States' advantages and liabilities as far as pooeinle •
7 . Tne quota duties ore alreax3y fixed in the IWIo/spain A.^reornenb. itself .
0.       The nrooon6c1 Tfe/rulations provide for a single method of administration
to bn armliod by all Membor Stat on , namoly the " as and when" method .
 9»       The Member States' experts who participated in the consultative meeting
 of the "Economic Tariff Problems" Group ( 26/ 27 April 1976J expressed agree­
 ment in prinoiple to the soheme for allocation of shares proposed by the
 Commission in the framework of the regulation annexed#
          If the case should arise that the negotiations with Spain result in a
 new regime            ooming into effeot on 1 January 1977/ the Commission would
present new proposals *
Annexes :
        ~ 2 proposals for regulations of the Counoil •
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                                                ANNEX A
                                            Proposal for a
                             REGULATION ( EEC) No                 OF THE COUNCIL
              opening ) allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff
              quota for dried figs failing within subheading ex 08.03 B of the Common
                                   Customs Tariff, originating in Spain ( 197 7 )
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                 Whereas, during the last three years for which statis­
COMMUNITIES,                                                tics are available, the corresponding imports by each
                                                            of the Member States represent the following percen­
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European       tages of the imports into the Community from Spain
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 43           of the products concerned :
and 113 thereof ;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;                                                1973         974  1975
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parlia­
ment ( ' );                                                 Germany
                                                            Bénélux                                                   M
Whereas the Agreement between the European                  France                                             100   16,2
Economic Community and Spain, signed at Luxem­                                                                 » 1
bourg on 29 June 1970, provides in Article 2(1 )                                                            metric
together with Article 9 of Annex 1 for the opening by                                                         ton)
the Community of an annual Community tariff quota           Italy
of 200 metric tons of dried figs falling within
subheading ex 08.03 B of the Common Customs
Tariff, originating in Spain and imported in immed­
iate packings of a net capacity of 15 kg or less ;
whereas, pursuant to Article 9 of the said Annex, the
quota duty is equal to 30 % of the Common Customs          Whereas, m view of these factors and of the estimates
Tariff duty in respect of the product concerned ;          submitted by certain Member States as well as the
                                                           practical     need   to  ensure  that  the    obligations
Whereas the Community tariff quota in question             contracted under the Agreement concerned are allor
should be opened for the year 197 7; whereas,              cated fairly among all the Member States, initial quota
however, because of the possibility of implementing        shares may be fixed approximately at the following
other preferential arrangements                            percentages :
                    it is necessary to limit the quota
period to the date on which the new arrangement                        Germany                          25
enters into force ;                                                  t Bénélux                          25
                                                                       France                           25
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure to all                 Italy                            25
Community importers equal and uninterrupted access
to the abovementioned quota and uninterrupted appli­
cation of the rate laid down for that quota to all         Whereas, in order to take into account import trends
imports of the product concerned into all Member           for the products concerned in the different Member
States until the quota has been used up ; whereas,         States, the quota amount should be divided into two
having regard to the principles mentioned above, the       tranches, the first tranche being allocated among the
Community nature of the quota can be respected by          Member States, and the second forming a reserve
allocating the Community tariff quota among the            intended ultimately to cover the requirements of the
Member States ; whereas, in order to reflect more accu­    Member States which have used up their initial
rately the actual development of the market in the         shares ; whereas, in order to ensure a certain degree of
product concerned, such allocation should be in            security to importers in each Member State, the first
proportion to the needs of the Member States,              tranche of the Community quota should be deter­
assessed by reference to both the statistics of each       mined at a level which, under present circumstances,
State's imports of the said goods from Spain over a        may be 80 % of the quota amount ;
representative period and the economic outlook for
the quota period concerned ;
                                                           Whereas, the initial shares of the Member States may
('      0J No                                              be used up at different times ; whereas, in order to
                                                           take this fact into account and avoid any break in
 ---pagebreak---                                                              - 2 -
                                                                                                                   ANNEX A
    continuity, it is important that any Member State                                       Article 3
    having used up almost the whole of its initial share
    should draw an additional share from the reserve ;              1.   If 90 /o or more of the initial share of a Member
   whereas, this must be done by each Member State as
   and when each of its additional shares is almost                State, as laid down in Article 2(1 ), on 90% of that
   entirely used up, and repeated as many times AS the             share less the amount returned into the reserve, where
   reserve allows ; whereas the initial and additional             the provisions of Article S have been applied, hai
   shares must be available for use until the end of the          been exhausted, that Member State shall proceed
   quota period ; whereas this method of administration           without delay, by notifying the Commission, to draw a
   calls for close cooperation between Member States and          second share equal to 15% of its initial share,
   the Commission , which must, in particular, be able to         rounded up to the next unit where appropriate, to the
                                                                  extent that the amount in the reserve allows.
   observe the extent to which the quota amount is used
   and inform Member States thereof ;
                                                                  2.     If, after its initial share has been exhausted,
   Whereas if, at a specified date in the quota period, a         90 % or more of the second share drawn by a
   considerable balance remains in one or other Member            Member State has been used, that Member State shall
   State it is essential that that Member State pays a large      proceed without delay, in accordance with the condi­
   amount of it back into the reserve, in order to avoid a        tions laid down in paragraph 1 , to draw a third share
   part of the Community quotas remaining unused in              equal to 7-5 % of its initial share, rounded up to the
   one Member State when it could be used in others ;             next unit where appropriate, to the extent that the
                                                                 amount in the reserve allows.
  Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the
  Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of              3. If, after its second share has been exhausted,
  Luxembourg are united in and represented by the                90 % or more of the third share drawn by a Member
  Benelux Economic Union, all transactions concerning            State has been used, that Member State shall proceed,
  the administration of shares granted to the abovemen-          in the same way, to draw a fourth share equal to the
                                                                 third.
  tioned Economic Union may be carried out by any
  one of its members,
                                                                This process shall be applied until the reserve is
                                                                exhausted .
  HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
                                                                4. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 1 ,,
                                                                2 and 3, the Member States may proceed to draw
                            Article 1                           shares smaller than those fixed in those paragraphs, if
                                                                there is reason to believe that those shares might not
  From 1 January 197 7until the date of entry into force        be used up. They shall inform the Commission of the
 of a new         arrangement                                   reasons which led them to apply this paragraph.
                                 but  not  later  than   31
 December 1977 the Common Customs Tariff duty in
 respect of dried figs falling within subheading ex                                        Article 4
08.03 B, originating in Spain and imported in immed­
 iate packings of a net capacity not exceeding 15 kg           The additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3
shall be partially suspended at 3 % within the limits          shall be valid until the end of the period stipulated in
of a Community tariff quota of 200 metric tons.                Article 1 .
                           Article 2
                                                                                          Article 5
 I. A first tranche, amounting to 160 metric tons of
the Community tariff quota referred to in Article 1 ,          The Member States shall return to the reserve, not
shall be shared among the Member States ; the propor­          later than 1 October 1977, the unused portion of their
tions which, subject to Article 5, shall be valid from 1       initial share which, on 15 September 1977, is in
January until the end of the period specified in               excess of 20 % of the initial amount. They shall
Article I , sh.ill be as follows :                             return a larger quantity if there is reason to believe
                                                               that such quantity might not be used.
             ( icrmany                         40
             Bénélux                          40              The Member States shall, not later than I October .
             France                           40
                                                               1977, notify the Commission of the total imports of
             It.ily                           40
                                                              the product concerned effected up to 15 September
                                                               1977 inclusive, and charged against the Community
2.     The second tranche of 40 metric tons shall             quota and, where appropriate, the proportion of their
constitute the reserve .
                                                              initial share that is being returned to the reserve.
 ---pagebreak---                                                      - 3 -
                           Article 6
                                                            producf'concerned ^mst^l"            'mp°rtS °f the
                                                            «hc goods are entered for home Lt" **         ^
   receives the notifications.                 ^ 35 "      4.    The extent to which a Member Stir- h,«   ^
                                                           its share shall be determined on thTb , ' 5 ,'«*l! P
                                                           •-pon, charged in accordance „ilh
  HFrrf7*–s °c-^
             return of shares pursuant to Article 5                              Article 8
                                                           Member States shall inform the
                          Artir/e 7
                                                                                Article 9
1-     The Member States shall take -ill a™™ •
meaSUres to ensure that, when additional shareware
               ot thc Community quota.
                                                                               Article 10
     «cc« ,0 the shares allocated ,0 ,^™'* "             ™» Relation illa|, „K, jnM ^ ^ (
              Stales ^U IOn Sh'" *               - * -»« «- directly ,pp„„b,e |„ « Memb„
             Done at Brussels,
                                                                   For the Council
                                                                    The President
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                                           ANNEX B
                                                Proposal for a
                            REGULATION ( EEC) No                  OF THE COUNCIL
              opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff
              quota for dried grapes falling within subheading 08.04 B I of the Common
                                   Customs Tariff, originating in Spain ( 1977 )
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                 representative period and the economic outlook for
COMMUNITIES,                                                the quota period concerned ;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 43           Whereas, during the last three years for which statis­
and 113 thereof ;                                           tics are available, the corresponding imports by each
                                                            of the Member States represent the following percen­
                                                            tages of the imports into the Community from Spain
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;         of the products concerned :
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parlia­                                                1973     1974    1975
ment ( ' ) ;
                                                           Germany                                   2-3      46      3.9
Whereas the Agreement between the European
Economic Community and Spain, signed at Luxem­
                                                            Bénélux                                  1-1     13-7    13.9
bourg on 29 June 1970, provides in Article 2(1 )            France                                 70-2      66-3    73.4
together with Article 9 of Annex I for the opening by       Italy                                  164       15-4     f. 8
the Community of an annual duty-free Community
tariff quota of 1 700 metric tons of dried grapes falling
within subheading 08.04 B I of the Common
Customs Tariff, originating in Spain and imported in
immediate containers of a net capacity of 15 kg or
less ;
                                                           Whereas, in view of these factors and of the estimates
                                                           submitted by certain Member States, initial quota
Whereas the Community tariff quota in question             shares may be fixed approximately at the following
should be opened for the year 197 7; whereas,               percentages :
however, because of the possibility of implementing
other preferential arrangements
                                                                      Germany                             4
                                                                       Bénélux                           13
                  , it is necessary to limit the quota
                                                                       France                            64
period to the date on which the new arrangement
                                                                       Italy                             19
enters into force ;
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure to all      Whereas, in order to take into account import trends
Community importers equal and uninternipted access          for the product concerned in the different Member
to the abovementioned quota and uninterrupted appli­        States, the quota amount should be divided into two
cation of the rate laid down for that quota to all          tranches, the first tranche being allocated among the
imports of the product concerned into all Member            Member States, and the second forming a reserve
States until the quota has been used up ; whereas,          intended ultimately to cover the requirements of the
having regard to the principles mentioned above, the        Member States which have used up their initial quota
Community nature of the quota can be respected by           shares ; whereas, in order to ensure a certain degree of
allocating the Community tariff quota among the             security to importers in each Member State, the first
 Member States ; whereas, in order to reflect more accu­
                                                            tranche of the Community quota should be deter­
 rately the actual development of the market in the         mined at a level which, under present circumstances,
 product concerned, such allocation should be in
 proportion to the needs of the Member States,
                                                            may be 80 % of the quota amount ;
 assessed by reference to both the statistics of each
 State's imports of the said products from Spain over a
                                                            Whereas the initial quota shares of the Member States
 ( ')  0 J No                                               may be used up at different times ; whereas, in order
                                                            to take this fact into account and avoid any break in
 ---pagebreak---                                                - 2 -                                            ANNEX B
continuity, it is important that any Member State                                     Article 3
having used up almost the whole of its initial quota
share should draw an additional quota share from the        1.     If 90 % or more of the initial share of a Member
reserve ; whereas, this must be done by each Member         State, as laid down in Article 2(1 ), or 90% of that
State as and when cncli of its ndditional quota shnfes      share Im the omeunt returned into the reserve, where
is almost entirely used up, and repeated as many times      the provisions of Article 5 have been applied, has
as the reserve allows ; whereas the initial and addi­       been exhausted, that Member State shall proceed
tional quota shares must be available for use until the     without delay, by notifying the Commission, to draw a
end of the quota period ; whereas this method of            second share equal to 15% of its initial share,
administration calls for close cooperation between          rounded up to the next unit where appropriate, to the
Member States and the Commission , which must, in           extent that the amount in the reserve allows.
particular, be able to observe the extent to which the
quota amount is used and inform Member States               2. ' If, after its initial share has been exhausted ,
thereof ;                               /                   90 % or more of the second share drawn by a
                                                            Member State has been used , that Member State shall
Whereas if, at a specified date in the quota period, a      proceed without delay, in accordance with the condi­
considerable balance remains in one or other Member
                                                            tions laid down in paragraph 1 , to draw a third share
State it is essential that that Member State pays a large
amount of it back into the reserve, in order to avoid a
                                                            equal to 7-5 % of its initial share, rounded up to the
                                                            next unit where appropriate, to the extent that the
part of the Community quota remaining unused in             amount in the reserve allows.
one Member State when it could be used in others ;
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the                  3.      If, after its second share has been exhausted,
Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of           90 % or more of the third share drawn by a Member
Luxembourg are united in and represented by the             State has been used, that Member State shall proceed,
Benelux Economic Union, all transactions concerning         in the same way, to draw a fourth share equal to the
                                                            third .
the administration of shares granted to the abovemen-
tioned Economic Union may be carried out by any
one of its members,                                         This process shall be applied until the reserve is
                                                            exhausted .
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                               4. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph's 1 ,
                                                            2 and 3, the Member States may proceed to draw
                                                            shares smaller than those fixed in those paragraphs, if
                          Article 1                         there is reason to believe that they might not be used
                                                            up. They shall inform the Commission of the reasons
From 1 January 1977 until the date of entry into force      which led them to apply this paragraph .
of a new                 arrangement
  but not Later than 31
December 1977 the Common Customs Tariff duty in                                       Article 4
respect of dried grapes falling within subheading
08.04 B I, originating in Spain and imported in             The additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3
immediate containers of a net capacity not exceeding        shall be valid until the end of the period stipulated in
 15 kg shall be entirely suspended within the limits of     Article 1 .
a Community tariff quota of 1 700 metric tons.
                          Article 2                                                   Article 5
 1 . A first tranche, amounting to 1 360 metric tons         The Member States shall return to the reserve, not
of the Community tariff quota referred to in Article 1       later than 1 October 1977, the unused portion of their
shall be shared among the Member States ; the propor­        initial share which , on 15 September 1977, is in
 tions which, subject to Article 5, shall be valid until     excess of 20 % of the initial amount. They shall
 the end of the period specified in Article 1 , shall be as  return a larger quantity if there is reason to believe
 follows :
                                                             that such quantity might not be used.
            Germany                55 metric tons
            Benelux              1 77 metric tons            The Member States shall , not later than 1 October
            France               870 metric tons             197 7 notify the Commission of the total imports of
            Italy                258 metric tons             the product concerned effected up to 15 September
                                                             1 97 ' inclusive and charged against the Community
 2.    The second tranche of 340 metric tons shall           quota and, where appropriate, the proportion of their
 constitute the reserve.                                     initial share that is being returned to the reserve.
 ---pagebreak---                                                             - 3 -                                                    ANNEX B
#                          Article 6                            3.    The Member States shall charge imports of the
                                                                product concerned against their shares as and when
   The Commission shall keep account of the share               the goods are entered for home use.
 I opened by Member State* in netwdtint'e with Articles
?  2 and 3 ami shall inform each of them of the extent
   to which the reserve has been used as soon as it
                                                                4. . The extent to which a Member State has used up
                                                                its shares shall be determined on the basis of the
   receives the notifications.
                                                                imports charged in accordance with paragraph 3.
   The Commission shall , not later than 5 October 197 7
   notify Member States of the amount in the reserve                                     Article 8
   after the return of shares pursuant to Article 5.
   The Commission shall ensure that any drawing which           Member States      shall  inform   the  Commission    at
   uses up the reserve is limited to the balance available      regular intervals of imports actually charged against
   and, for this purpose, shall specify the amount thereof      their quota shares.
   to the Member State which makes the final drawing.
                                                                                         Article 9
                           Article 7
   1.    The Member States shall take all measures appro­       The Member States and the Commission shall coop­
   priate to ensure that, when additional shares arc drawn      erate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
   pursuant to Article 3, it is possible for charges to be      observed.
   made without interruption against their accumulated
   shares of the Community quota.
                                                                                        Article 10
   2. The Member States shall ensure that importers
   of the said goods established in their territory have        This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
   free access to the share allocated to them .                 1977,                     ,
                 This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
                 States .
                 Done at Brussels,
                                                                            For the Council
                                                                             The President