CELEX: 31977D0289
Language: en
Date: 1977-03-23 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 23 March 1977 authorizing Ireland to take protective measures in respect of certain processed agricultural products under Article 135 of the Act of Accession

21 . 4. 77                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No L 97/29
                                                                II
                                         (Acts whose publication is not obligatory)
                                                   COMMISSION
                                                 COMMISSION DECISION ;
                                                       of 23 Match 1977
                 authorizing Ireland to take protective measures in respect of certain processed
                         agricultural products under Article 135 of the ! Act of Accession
                                               (Only the English text is authentic)
                                                          (77/289/ EEC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                      lades falling Within tariff subheadings ex 20.05 B and
COMMUNITIES,                                                        C ; whereas indeed from both the trade aspect and
                                                                    that of the economic incidence of the prices of the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
                                                                    basic product^, it is not possible to conclude that there
                                                                    exist serious difficulties or difficulties which could
Economic Community,
                                                                    bring about a : serious alteration in a regional economic
                                                                    situation ; whereas as far as trade in these products is
Having regard to the Act of Accession, and in parti­                concerned, it must be pointed out that Irish exports to
cular to Article 135 thereof,                                       the United Kingdom do not even amount to 10 % of
                                                                    total exports ; whereas imports from the United
                                                                    Kingdom represent only a small part of Irish produc­
Having regard to the application by Ireland of 15                   tion ;        ;
March 1977 for authorization to take measures to elim­
inate the distortion in trade between Ireland and the
United Kingdom arising from existing agricultural                   Whereas, moreover the difference in the price in
monetary arrangements in the following products :                   Ireland and the United Kingdom of sugar, the basic
                                                                    product for tl)e goods in question , given the monetary
         Common                                                     compensatory amounts which apply, cannot be consid­
      Customs Tariff                   Product
         heading
                                                                    ered a factor of large distortions in view of the small
                                                                    economic incidence which this difference represents
                                                                    in relation to the average value of the finished
    1 7.04 B              Chewing gum                               products ;
    1 7.04 D              Sugar confectionery
    18.06 C               Chocolate
                                                                    Whereas the Irish request seems equally unjustified in
     19.08 B              Flour    confectionery     including      the case of chewing gum falling within tariff
                          biscuits
                                                                    subheading 17.04 B in view of the low incidence of
    18.06 B
    21.07 C            j Ice cream                                  the prices of the basic products concerned, maize and
                                                                    sugar, on the price of the finished product ;
ex 20.05 B and C          Jams and marmalades
                                                                    Whereas trade in the remaining product between
                                                                    Ireland and the United Kingdom in 1976 amounted
Whereas the Irish request to be able to apply safe­                 to about £ 15 million in each direction ; whereas,
guard measures in trade with the United Kingdom                     however the current trend in trade is in Ireland's disfa­
does not seem justified in the case of jams and marma­              vour, as the following figures show :
 ---pagebreak--- No L 97/30                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                  21 . 4 . 77
                                                                                                              tonnes
                                                               December 1 975     December 1976
                                                                      to                to           % change
                                                                January 1976       January 1977
              Irish imports from UK                               *2 457              3 981          + 62 %
              Irish exports to UK                                  2 070              2 153          +   4%
Whereas although exports to Ireland represent only                  exports in the Irish market and concomitantly the
 ± 10 % of total UK exports in the products                         disadvantage suffered by Irish exports on the United
concerned they constitute ± 90 % of total Irish                     Kingdom market ; whereas the effect in trade of an
imports ; whereas although Irish exports to the UK                  incidence of the order of magnitude indicated will
amount to ± 33 % of total UK imports, they repre­                   vary according to the market for particular products ;
sent ± 85% of Irish exports and ± 15% of total
Irish production ;
                                                                    Whereas this situation , in its present acute* form since
                                                                    November 1976, has given rise to serious difficulties
Whereas by virtue of Council Regulation (EEC) No                    for the sectors concerned in Ireland which are liable
974/71 of 12 May 1971 (') Member States were autho­                 to persist in the foreseeable future, failing a funda­
rized to take certain measures in the case of the wide­
                                                                    mental realignment of the currencies involved ;
ning of the margins of fluctuation of Member States
currencies so as to avoid disruption of the intervention
system in agriculture ; whereas these measures require
                                                                     whereas in order to avoid the loss of the predomi­
Member States, as the case may be, to charge or grant
                                                                    natly important UK export market and to maintain
on exports from other Member States and third coun­
tries and to charge or grant on exports to other                    employment to the greatest extent possible, Irish
Member States and third countries compensatory                      manufacturers have maintained as far as possible their
                                                                    normal export levels with the consequences that such
amounts for certain basic products covered by inter­
                                                                    action inevitably entails in pricing policy ; whereas a
vention arrangements ;
                                                                    similar policy has been adopted to defend the
                                                                    domestic market in the face of the more competitive
Whereas the agricultural raw materials used in the                   UK imports with similar consequences ; whereas the
manufacture of the products referred to in the Irish                accumulated effects of such policies pursued since
application are products covered by the common                       November 1976 are at present causing repercussions
organization of the market in agricultural products                  not only on employment where 250 persons have lost
and in respect of which the system of compensatory                   their employment out of a total work force of 6 000
                                                                     for the sectors concerned but also on the market
amounts applies ;
                                                                    shares of Irish manufacturers both domestically and in
                                                                     the UK .
Whereas in the light of the existing monetary situa­
tion and the margins between currencies the compen­
satory amounts charged or granted, expressed as a                    Whereas to rectify the situation and adjust the sectors
 percentage of the intervention prices of such basic                 concerned to the economy of the common market it
 products, would amount to 34-7 % in the case of the                 is necessary to introduce a mechanism suitable to
 United Kingdom and to 10-4% in the case of                          eliminate both the cost disadvantage of Irish exports
 Ireland ; whereas this situation, entailing a relative              in the products concerned to the United Kingdom
 disadvantage to the manufacturers concerned in                      and the cost advantage of similar United Kingdom
 Ireland on the cost of the basic products of 24-3 % ,               exports to Ireland so as to re-establish equitable condi­
 may lead to distortion in the terms of competition in               tions of competition in the sectors ; whereas it is
 trade in the processed agricultural products referred to            appropriate to this end to authorize Ireland to levy a
 in the Irish application between the Member States                  charge on imports of such processed agricultural
 concerned ; whereas although the incidence of such                  products of United Kingdom origin and to grant a
 disadvantage varies according to the proportion of the              payment on the export of such products of Irish
 basic products used in the manufacture of the                       origin to the United Kingdom, such amounts being
 processed products concerned, it may be situated                    identical for the same product though varying from
 between 2-7 % and 1 2-4 % of the total cost of a given              product to product and calculated so as to neutralize
 product ; whereas such incidence represents in prin­                the effects of current monetary arrangements in agri­
 ciple the extent of the advantage enjoyed by UK                     culture as they affect the basis products involved in
                                                                     the manufacture of the different processed agricultural
(') OJ No L 106, 12. 5 . 1971 , p. 1 .                               products,
 ---pagebreak--- 21 . 4 . 77                        Official Journal of the European Communities                         No L 97/31
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :                                                          Article 3
                                                             Ireland shall take all measures necessary to control the
                        Article 1
                                                             origin of the products to which Article 1 refers.
Ireland is authorized until 31 December 1977 to levy                                 Article 4
a charge on imports of those processed agricultural
products of United Kingdom origin specified in the           Ireland shall notify the Commission without delay of
Annex and to grant a payment on the export to the            those measures taken in application of Articles 1 , 2
                                                             and 3 .
United Kingdom of such products of Irish origin .
                                                                                     Article 5
                        Article 2
                                                             The Commission may modify or revoke this Decision
 1 . The amount of the charge and the payment auth­          in particular if it determines that the conditions
orized in Article 1 for each of the products is specified    which led to its adoption have changed or that its
in the Annex .
                                                             effects prove to be more restrictive than its purpose
2. These amounts may be amended from time to                 requires.
time by the Commission in the light of :                                             Article 6
 (i) subsequent movements in the currencies of the           This Decision is addressed to Ireland .
     Member States concerned , in so far as such move­
     ments lead to a change in the monetary compensa­
                                                             Done at Brussels , 23 March 1977.
     tory amounts on the basic products, or
(ii) subsequent changes in the proportions of the                                      For the Commission
     basic products employed in the manufacture of
     the products set out in the Annex,                                                    The President
and shall be communicated to Ireland .                                                     Roy JENKINS
 ---pagebreak--- No L 97/32                          Official Journal of the European Communities              21 . 4 . 77
                                                          ANNEX
                                                Amount                              Amount
                     CCT heading No                                  CCT heading No
                                                £/ 100 kg                           £/ 100 kg
           1 7.04 D I a)                         2-411       19.08  Bla)             2-080
           1 7.04 D I b) 1                       1-428       19.08  Bib)             3-744
           17.04 p i b) 2                        2037        19.08  B II a)          0-728
           1 7.04 D I b) 3 aa)                   2-648       19.08  B II b) 1        1-768
           1 7.04 D I b) 3 bb)                   2-703       19.08  B II b) 2        4-088
           1 7.04 D I b) 4                       3-160       19.08  B II c) 1        2-184
           17.04  D I b) 5                       3-383       19.08  B II c) 2        4-504
           17.04  D I b) 6                       3-605       19.08  B II d) 1        2-808
           17.04 D I b) 7                        3-730       19.08  B II d) 2        5-127
           17.04  D I b) 8                       3-953       19.08  Bìlia) 1         1-274
           1 7.04 D II a)                        4-661       19.08  BUI a) 2         4-173
           17.04  D II b) 1                      4-308       19.08  B III b) 1       1-898
           17.04  D II b) 2                      5-127       19.08  B III b) 2       4-217
           1 7.04 D II b) 3                      5-044       19.08  B III c) 1       2-938
           J 7.04 P II b) 4                      4-481       19.08  B III c) 2       4-777
           18.06  BI                             2-188       19.08  B IV a) 1        1-820
           18.06  B IIa)                         4-145       19.08  B IV a) 2        3-366
           18.06  B II b)                        5-873       1 9.08 B IV b) 1        2-262
           18.06 C I                             4-138       19.08  B IV b) 2        4-256
           18.06 Ç II a) 1                       1-873       19.08  B Va)            2-184
           1 8.06 C II a) 2                      2-289       19.08  B V b)           2-418
           18.06  C lib) 1                       3-873       21.07 C I               2-188
           18.06  C II b) 2                      4-593       21.07 C II a)           4-145
           1 8.06 Ç II b) 3                      5-249       21.07 C II b)           5-873
           1 8.06 C II b) 4                      6-113