CELEX: 31977R2877
Language: en
Date: 1977-12-20 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2877/77 of 20 December 1977 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for prepared or preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Tunisia (1978)

24 . 12 . 77                          Official Journal of the European Communities                            No L 332/7
                                    COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 2877/77
                                                   of 20 December 1977
              opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff
              quota for prepared or preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of
                        the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Tunisia ( 1978)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                      against the imports into the Community from Tunisia
COMMUNITIES,                                                     of the products concerned :
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                     Member State          1974     1975      1976
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 43
and 113 thereof,                                                 Benelux
                                                                 Denmark                                            —
                                                                 Germany                                            —
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,               France                         100      100       100
                                                                                             (= 36 t) (= 33 t) (= 14 t)
                                                                 Ireland                        —        —          —
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia­             Italy                          —        —          —
ment (J),                                                        United Kingdom                 .—       —          —
Whereas on 20 December 1977 the Council decided
to open a Community tariff quota for prepared or
preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D             Whereas these data cannot be considered as represen­
of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in                  tative to serve as a basis for allocation of the quota
Tunisia ; whereas this quota is for a quantity of 100            volume among the Member States ; whereas it is diffi­
tonnes free of duty ; whereas this tariff quota is to            cult to estimate imports by Member States for 1978
apply from 1 January 1978 until the conclusion of the            because of the absence of any pattern in previous
exchange of letters provided for in Article 18 of the            years ; whereas, to allocate the quota volume on a fair
Cooperation Agreement between the Community and                  basis, the initial quota shares may be fixed approxi­
Tunisia, until such time as Community arrangements               mately at the following percentages :
for imports of the products in question are applied or
until 31 December 1978 , whichever shall be the
earliest ; whereas this Community tariff quota should                    Benelux                              10 %
therefore be opened ;                                                    Denmark                               3 %
                                                                         Germany                              15 %
                                                                         France                               50 %
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure im­                      Ireland                               3 %
porters of the Member States equal and uninterrupted
access to the quota and uninterrupted application of                     Italy                                 4%
the rate laid down for that quota to all imports of the                  United Kingdom                       15 %
products in question into the Member States until the
quota has been used up ; whereas having regard to the
above principles the Community nature of the quota
can be respected by allocating the tariff quota among            Whereas, to take account of future import trends in
the Member States ; whereas to reflect most accurately           the various Member States for the products concerned,
the actual development of the market in the products             the quota volume should be divided into two instal­
in question, such allocation should be in proportion             ments, the first instalment being allocated among the
                                                                 Member States and the second held as a reserve
to the requirements of the Member States, assessed by
reference both to the statistics relating to imports             intended to cover at a later date the requirements of
from Tunisia over a representative reference period              Member States which have used up their initial share ;
and to the economic outlook for the quota period                 whereas, in order to ensure a certain degree of security
concerned ;                                                      to importers of each Member State, the first instal­
                                                                 ment of the Community tariff quota could be fixed at
                                                                 80 % of the quota volume ;
Whereas, during the last three years for which statis­
tics are available, the corresponding imports of each
Member State represent the following percentages as
                                                                 Whereas the initial shares may be used up at different
(!) OJ No C 299 , 12 . 12 . 1977, p. 60 .                        times ; whereas, in order to take this fact into account
 ---pagebreak--- No L 332/8                          Official Journal of the European Communities                              24. 12. 77
and to avoid any break in continuity, it is important          the end of the period specified in Article 1 , shall be as
that any Member State which has used up almost all             follows :
of its initial share should draw a supplementary share                                                    (tonnes)
from the reserve ; whereas this must be done by each                    Benelux                                8
Member State if each of its supplementary shares is                     Denmark                                2
almost used up, and as many times as the reserve                        Germany                              12
allows ; whereas each initial and supplementary share                   France                               40
must be valid until the end of the quota period ;                       Ireland                                2
whereas this form of administration requires close                      Italy                                  4
collaboration     between   Member      States  and   the                                                    12
                                                                        United Kingdom
Commission, and the Commission must be in a posi­
tion to follow the extent to which the tariff quotas           3.      The second instalment of 20 tonnes shall consti­
have been used up and inform the Member States                 tute the reserve .
thereof ;
                                                                                          Article 3
Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a
considerable quantity of the initial share remains in           1.     If 90 % or more of any Member State's initial
any Member State, it is essential that that State should       share, as laid down in Article 2 (2), or 90 % or more
 return a significant proportion to the reserve in order       of that share less the amount returned into the
to avoid part of the Community quota remaining                 reserve, where Article 5 has been applied, has been
 unused in one Member State when it could be used in           exhausted, that Member State shall without delay, by
 others ;                                                      notifying the Commission, draw a second share in the
                                                               quota equal to 1 5 % of its initial share, rounded up to
 Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the                     the next unit, where appropriate, to the extent that the
                                                                amount in the reserve allows .
 Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
 Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented           2.     If, after its initial share has been exhausted,
 by the Benelux Economic Union, any measure                     90 % or more of the second share drawn by a
 concerning the administration of the quota shares allo­        Member State has been used, that Member State shall,
 cated to that economic union may be carried out by             in accordance with the conditions laid down in para­
 any one of its members,                                        graph 1 , draw a third share equal to 7-5 % of its
                                                                initial share .
                                                                3.     If, after its second share has been exhausted,
 HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
                                                                90 % or more of the third share drawn by a Member
                                                                State has been used, that Member State shall, in accor­
                                                                dance with the same conditions, draw a fourth share
                                                                equal to the third .
                         Article 1
                                                                This process shall be applied until the reserve is
                                                                exhausted .
  From 1 January 1978 until the conclusion of the
  exchange of letters referred to in Article 18 of the          4. By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 , 2 and
  Cooperation Agreement between the Community and               3, Member States may draw smaller shares than those
 Tunisia, until such time as Community import                   fixed in those paragraphs if there is reason to believe
  arrangements are applied or until 31 December 1978 ,          that these shares might not be used up. They shall
  whichever shall be the earliest, a duty-free Commu­            inform the Commission of their reasons for applying
  nity tariff quota of 100 tonnes shall be opened for            this paragraph .
  imports into the Community of prepared or preserved
  sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of the                                       Article 4
  Common Customs Tariff and originating in Tunisia.
                                                                 Each of the additional shares drawn pursuant to
                                                                 Article 3 shall be valid until the end of the period
                          Article 2                              specified in Article 1 .
                                                                                          Article 5
  1.    The tariff quota referred to in Article 1 shall be
  divided into two instalments.                                  The Member States shall , not later than 1 October
                                                                  1978 , return to the reserve the unused portion of their
  2. A first instalment, amounting to 80 tonnes of               initial share which, on 15 September 1978 , is in
  the Community tariff quota referred to in Article 1 ,          excess of 20 % of the initial amount. They may return
  shall be allocated among the Member States ; the               a greater portion if there are grounds for believing
  shares, which subject to Article 5 shall be valid until        that such portion may not be used in full.
 ---pagebreak--- 24. 12 . 77                        Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 332/9
The Member States shall, not later than 1 October             pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that
1978, notify the Commission of the total imports of           charges may be made without interruption against
the products concerned effected under the Commu­              their accumulative shares of the Community quota.
nity quota up to and including 15 September 1978 ,            2. Member States shall ensure that importers of the
and where appropriate, the proportion of their initial        said products established in their territory have free
shares that they are returning to the reserve.                access to the shares allocated to them .
                        Article 6                             3.     The extent to which a Member State has used up
                                                              its share shall be determined on the basis of the
The Commission shall keep account of the shares               imports of the products in question originating in
opened by the Member States in accordance with Arti­         Tunisia when entered for home use .
cles 2 and 3 and shall inform each of them of the
extent to which the reserve has been used as soon as it                               Article 8
receives the notifications .
                                                              At the Commission's request Member States shall
The Commission shall, not later than 5 October 1978,          inform it of the products concerned actually charged
notify the Member States of the state of the reserve          against their shares.
after the return of shares pursuant to Article 5.
                                                                                      Article 9
The Commission shall ensure that any drawing which
uses up the reserve is limited to the balance available       The Member States and the Commission shall coop­
and, for this purpose, shall specify the amount thereof       erate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
of the Member State which makes the final drawing.            observed .
                        Article 7                                                    Article 10
1.    The Member States shall take all measures neces­        This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
sary to ensure that supplementary shares drawn                 1978 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 20 December 1977 .
                                                                          For the Council
                                                                            The President
                                                                            H. SIMONET