CELEX: 31976R2930
Language: en
Date: 1976-11-29 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2930/76 of 29 November 1976 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for unwrought magnesium falling within subheading 77.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff (1977)

3 . 12 , 76                       Official Journal of the European Communities                         No L 334/ 3
                                  COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC) No 2930/76
                                                of 29 November 1976
              opening , allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff
              quota for unwrought magnesium falling within subheading 77.01 A of the
                                          Common Customs Tariff ( 1977 )
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                  sium containing less than 99-8 % by weight of pure
 COMMUNITIES,                                                magnesium (hereinafter called 'unwrought magnesium
                                                             in alloy') differ considerably ; whereas a distinction
                                                             should therefore be made between these three quali­
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European       ties and the quota volume under consideration should
 Economic Community, and in particular Article 113           be divided between them ;
 thereof.
                                                             Whereas, taking into account an overall, provisional
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ,
                                                             quota volume of 5 500 metric tons, the following
                                                             quantities may be allocated to each quality of the
                                                             product in question : 600 metric tons for extra-pure
Whereas, in an exchange of letters dated 30 June             magnesium , 1 325 metric tons for unwrought magne­
 1967, confirmed in an exchange of letters dated 16          sium not in alloy and 3 575 metric tons for
April 1973, the European Economic Community has              unwrought magnesium in alloy ; whereas these figures
 undertaken , as regards unwrought magnesium falling         appear justified both by the former ratios of consump­
within tariff subheading 77.01 A, to open an annual          tion of these qualities to total consumption of magne­
 Community tariff quota for a quantity such that             sium and by the supply possibilities for these qualities
 Community requirements for the said goods not               of magnesium within the Community ;
 covered by Community production may be imported
duty free ;
                                                             Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota
Whereas, in order to establish the volume of the             should be ensured for all importers and the rate of
 Community tariff quota, an assessment must be made          levy for the tariff quota should be applied consistently
of the total consumption by the user industries of the       to all imports until the quota is used up ; whereas, in
Member States during the quota year and of the               the light of the principles outlined above, a Commu­
 Community production level for the same period ;            nity tariff arrangement based on an allocation between
whereas even a very rough assessment of total                the Member States would seem to preserve the
consumption and production for 1977 would be                 Community nature of the quota ; whereas, to repre­
 highly unreliable since it is at present impossible to      sent as closely as possible the actual development of
estimate either the volume of unwrought magnesium            the market in the said goods, the allocation must
used in certain Member States in the year under              follow proportionately the requirements of the
consideration or the likely level of Community               Member      States  calculated  both  from  statistics of
output ; whereas, in any case, it is unlikely that           imports from third countries during a representative
Community production will fully meet demand in the           reference period and from the economic outlook for
quota year ; whereas the annual quota volume must            the quota year in question ;
therefore be fixed at an appropriate level , probably
about 5 500 metric tons ; whereas this assessment is
based on conservative estimates and later adjustments
are not excluded ; whereas the duties to be applied by       Whereas, however, the available statistics of imports
the new Member States under the said tariff quota            into the Member States from third countries which
must comply with the relevant provisions of the Act          did not benefit from an equivalent tariff preference
of Accession ;                                               under any other preferential arrangements cover only
                                                             unwrought magnesium in alloy and unwrought magne­
                                                             sium not in alloy ; whereas, during the last three years
Whereas the markets in magnesium containing                  for which statistics are available, such imports repre­
99-95 % or more by weight of pure magnesium (here­           sented the following percentages of total imports of
inafter called 'extra-pure magnesium '), in magnesium        the said goods ; whereas, from the information at
containing 99-8 % or more, but less than 99-95 % by          present to hand , it would seem that imports of extra­
weight of pure magnesium (hereinafter called                 pure magnesium are effected almost wholly in the
'unwrought magnesium not in alloy') and in magne             United Kingdom :
 ---pagebreak--- No L 334/4                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                   3 . 12 . 76
— for unwrought magnesium                                       of security, the first tranches should be fixed at 1 195
     not in alloy :              1973        1974     1975      metric tons of unwrought magnesium not in alloy and
                                                                3 150 metric tons of unwrought magnesium in alloy,
     Benelux                      6.55     23.18     10.04
                                                                the balances being held as the reserves ;
     Denmark                      0          0         0
     Germany                    69.93      52.96    55.00
                                                                Whereas the initial shares may be used up more or
     France                      9.39        7.11    18.18      less quickly ; whereas, therefore, in order to avoid
     Ireland                      0.01       001      0
                                                                disrupting supplies, any Member State which has
     Italy                       3.06        2.21     7.47      almost used up one of its initial shares should draw a
     United Kingdom             11.06       14.53     9.31      supplementary share from the relevant reserve ;
                                                                whereas this must be done by each Member State as
     for unwrought magnesium in alloy :                         each one of its supplementary shares is almost used
                                 1973      ' 1974     1975      up, as many times as the reserve allows ; whereas the
                                                                initial and supplementary shares must be valid until
     Benelux                      3.18       1.72      1.88     the end of the quota period ; whereas this form of
     Denmark                      0          0         0        administration requires close collaboration between
     Germany                     93.23      94.26    96.23      the Member States and the Commission , and the
     France                       0          1.57      0
                                                                Commission must be in a position to follow the
     Ireland                      0.01       0         0
                                                                extent to which the quota volume has been used up
     Italy                       3.56        2.05      1.08     and inform the Member States thereof ;
     United Kingdom              0.02        0.39     0.81
                                                                Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a
                                                                Member State has a considerable quantity of one of its
                                                                initial shares left over, it is essential that it should
Whereas, in view of these factors and of market fore­
                                                                return a significant proportion thereof to the relevant
                                                                reserve, to prevent a part of one or other quota volume
casts for these products in 1977, it is necessary in the        from remaining unused in one Member State while it
case of extra-pure unwrought magnesium to allocate              could be used in others ;
on an experimental basis the quota volume for this
quality to the Community reserve and to provide for             Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium , the
Member States which have requirements to be met to              Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
be able to draw upon this reserve in appropriate quan­           Luxembourg are jointly represented by the Benelux
tities , whereas it is necessary to fix for the other quali­    Economic Union , any measure concerning the admin­
ties of magnesium initial percentage shares at approxi­         istration    of the shares allocated to that economic
mately the following levels :                                   union may be carried out by any one of its members,
— for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :
     Benelux                                         16.74
                                                                HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
     Denmark                                           0 04
     Germany                                         67.80
     France                                            3.34                                Article 1
     Ireland                                           0.04
     Italy                                             0.33      1.      From 1 January until 31 December 1977 a
     United Kingdom                                  1 1.71     Community tariff quota of 5 500 metric tons shall be
                                                                opened in the Community for unwrought magnesium
— for unwrought magnesium in alloy :                            falling within subheading 77.01 A of the Common
     Benelux                                           2.12     Customs Tariff.
     Denmark                                           003
     Germany                                         96.50      2.      The volume of the tariff quota shall be divided
     France                                            0.03     as follows :
     Ireland                                           0.02
     Italy                                             0.80     (a) 600 metric tons for unwrought magnesium
     United Kingdom                                    0.50          containing 99-95 % or more by weight of pure
                                                                     magnesium ('extra-pure magnesium '), intended for
                                                                     the nuclear industry, under customs or equivalent
Whereas , in order to take more accurate account of                  administrative control (') ;
future import trends for unwrought magensium not in             (b) 1 325 metric tons for unwrought magnesium
alloy, the total quota volume for these qualities should             containing not less than 99-8 % or more, but less
be divided into two tranches, the first being allocated              than 99-95 % , by weight of pure magnesium
among the Member States and the second held as a                     (' unwrought magnesium not in alloy') ;
reserve to cover at a later date the requirements of
Member States who have used up their initial shares ;           (') The allocation ot this quota is subject to conditions to be
whereas, in order to guarantee importers some degree                determined by the competent authorities .
 ---pagebreak--- 3 . 12. 76                          Official Journal of the European Communities                               No L 334/ 5
(c) 3 575 metric tons for unwrought magnesium                                            Article 4
     containing less than 99-8 % by weight of pure
     magnesium ('unwrought magnesium in alloy').               1.     If 90 % or more of one of a Member State 's
                                                               initial shares as specified in Article 3 ( 1 ), or of that
3 . Imports of the said goods shall not be counted            share minus the portion returned to the relevant
under the tariff quota if they are already free of             reserve where Article 6 is applied, has been used up,
customs duties under other preferential tariff treat­          that Member State shall without delay, by notifying
ment .
                                                               the Commission , draw a second share equal to 10 %
                                                              of its initial share, where necessary rounded off
4.      Within the tariff quota the Common Customs             upwards to the next unit, in so far as permitted by the
Tariff duties shall be totally suspended .                     amount of the reserve .
5 . Within the tariff quota the new Member States
                                                               2.     If, after one or other of its initial shares has been
shall apply duties calculated in accordance with the
relevant provisions of the Act of Accession .                  used up, 90 % or more of the second share drawn by
                                                               a Member State has been used up, that Member State
                                                               shall , in accordance with the conditions laid down in
                          Article 2                            paragraph 1 , draw a third share equal to 5% of its
                                                               initial share, where necessary rounded off upwards to
                                                               the next unit .
 1.     The volume of 600 metric tons referred to in
Article 1 (2) (a), allocated to extra-pure unwrought
magnesium intended for the nuclear industry, shall be          3.      If, after one or other of its second shares has
allotted to the Community reserve .                            been used, up 90 % or more of the third share drawn
                                                               by a Member State has been used Up, that Member
 2.     If in a Member State a need is felt for extra-pure     State shall , in accordance with the same conditions,
 unwrought magnesium , that State shall draw, to the           draw a fourth share equal to the third.
 extent permitted by the amount of the reserve, a suffi­
 cient share of the reserve thus set up .                      This process shall continue to apply until the reserves
                                                               are used up.
                          Article 3
                                                               4.      Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 , 2 and 3, a
 1.     A first tranche of each of the volumes provided        Member State may draw shares lower than those fixed
 for in Article 1 (2) (b) and (c), which amount to 1 195       in these paragraphs if there are grounds for believing
 metric tons for unwrought magnesium not in alloy              that those fixed might not be used up. It shall inform
 and 3 150 metric tons for magnesium in alloy shall be         the Commission of its reasons for applying this para­
 divided among the Member States. The shares, which            graph .
 are valid up to 31 December 1977, subject to Article
 6, amount to the following quantities :
                                                                                         Article 5
 (a) for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :
                                            (in mctric tons)   Supplementary shares drawn pursuant to Article 4
      Benelux                                         200      shall be valid until 31 December 1977 .
      Denmark                                           0-5
     Germany                                          810
      France                                           40
                                                                                         Article 6
     Ireland                                            0-5
      Italy                                              4
     United Kingdom                                   140      Member States shall return to the reserve, not later
                                                               than 1 October 1977, the unused portion of their
 (b) for unwrought magnesium in alloy :                        initial shares which , on 15 September 1977, is in
                                            (in metric tons)   excess of 20 % of the initial amount. They may return
      Benelux                                             67   a greater portion if there are grounds for believing
      Denmark                                                  that such portion may not be used in full .
     Germany                                          3 040
      France                                               1   Member States shall , not later than 1 October 1977,
      Ireland                                              1    notify the Commission of the total imports of the
      Italy                                               25   products concerned effected under the Community
      United Kingdom                                      15   quotas up to and including 15 September 1977 and,
                                                               where appropriate , the proportion of each of their
 2.     The second tranches , of 1 30 and 425 metric tons       initial shares that they are returning to each of the
 respectively, shall be held as Community reserves .            reserves .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 334/ 6                         Official Journal of the European Communities                              3 . 12 . 76
                        Article 7                             2.      Member States shall ensure that importers esta­
                                                              blished in their territory have free access to the shares
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares            allocated to them .
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2, 3
and 4 and shall , as soon as it has been notified, inform     3 . The extent to which a Member State has used up
each State of the extent to which the reserve has been        its shares shall be determined on the basis of the quan­
used up.                                                      tities of the said goods entered for home use.
It shall inform the Member States , not later than 5
October 1977, of the amount still in reserve after                                     Article 9
amounts have been returned thereto pursuant to                 Upon a request from the Commission, Member States
Article 6 .
                                                              shall inform it of imports actually charged against
It shall ensure that the drawing which uses up a              their shares .
reserve is limited to the balance available and to this
end shall specify the amount thereof to the Member                                    Article 10
State making the last drawing.
                                                              The Member States and the Commission shall co­
                        Article 8                             operate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation
                                                               is observed .
1 . Member States shall take all measures necessary
to ensure that supplementary shares drawn pursuant                                    Article 11
to Article 4 are opened in such a way that imports
may be charged without interruption against their             This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
accumulated shares in the Community quota.                     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