CELEX: 31977R2608
Language: en
Date: 1977-11-21 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2608/77 of 21 November 1977 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 (1978) and extending this quota to include certain other types of paper

29. 11 . 77                           Official Journal of the European Communities                               No L 305/ 1
                                                              i
                                            (Acts whose publication is obligatory)
                                      COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 2608/77
                                                   of 21 November 1977
               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 ( 1978 ) and
                               extending this quota to include certain other types of paper
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,                        these principles, arrangements for the utilization of the
                                                                 Community tariff quota based on an allocation among
                                                                 Member States would seem to be consistent with the
                                                                 Community nature of the quota; whereas, in order that
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European            it may correspond as closely as possible to the actual
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 28 and            trend of the market in the product in question, allo­
113 thereof,                                                     cation of the quota should be in proportion to the re­
                                                                 quirements of the Member States as calculated by refer­
                                                                 ence to statistics on imports from third countries during
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,               a representative reference period and to the economic
                                                                 outlook for the year covered by the quota in question ;
Whereas the Community has undertaken to open an
annual duty-free Community tariff quota of 1 500 000
tonnes of newsprint falling within subheading 48.01 A ;           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
Whereas, in view of present Community production                  of total imports of the products in question :
capacity, that quantity is insufficient to meet anticipated
import requirements ; whereas provision should there­
fore be made for an autonomous supplementary quota
which, according to the estimates submitted, may be                                          1974         / 9 75       7 9 76
fixed at present at 800 000 tonnes; whereas the fact that        Benelux                    14-04       14-06         12-55
this figure has been adopted for the autonomous sup­
                                                                 Denmark                     4-89         5-23         5-92
plementary quota does not rule out a readjustment
during the quota period; whereas a Community tariff              Germany                    25-78       27-05         26-90
quota should therefore be opened for 1978 for a total            France                     13-46       11-86         11-50
quantity of 2 300 000 tonnes of the product in ques­             Ireland                     2-12        2-02          2-03
tion ;
                                                                 Italy                       0-42         0-50         0-50
                                                                 United Kingdom             39-29       39-28         40-60
Whereas provision should be made for extending the
tariff quota in question to include certain types of paper
fulfilling all the conditions set out in the Additional
Note to Chapter 48 except those relating to water­               Whereas, in order to arrive at a proper assessment of
marks ;                                                          those statistics, however, it should be borne in mind
                                                                 that the opening of a Community tariff quota for the
                                                                 enlarged Community may alter the pattern of trade of
Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota                 Member States with third countries; whereas, in view of
should be ensured for all Community importers and the            the above and of the foreseeable trend on the market in
rate of duty for the tariff quota should be applied with­        newsprint in general, and of production in particular
out interruption to all imports of the products in ques­         during 1978 , the quota may be allocated approximately
tion until the quota is exhausted; whereas in the light of       in the following percentages :
 ---pagebreak---  No L 305 /2                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                  29 . 11 . 77
        Benelux                               13-89               opened in respect of newsprint falling within subhead­
        Denmark                                 7-88              ing 48.01 A of the Common Customs Tariff ( 1).
        Germany                               27-75
        France                                12-48               2 . Member States may charge against this tariff quota
        Ireland                                 2-29              the other types of paper complying with the definition
        Italy                                   0-04              of newsprint contained in the Additional Note to Chap­
                                                                  ter 48 , except as regards the criteria governing water-*
        United Kingdom                        35-67               marks .
 Whereas, to take account of import trends for the pro­           3 . Imports of newsprint shall not be charged against
 duct concerned, the quota should be divided into two             this tariff quota if they are already free of customs
 tranches, the first being allocated among the Member             duties under other preferential tariff treatment. Futher­
 States and the second held as a reserve to cover subse­
                                                                  more, imports of any other paper referred to in para­
 quently the requirements of Member States which have
                                                                  graph 2 enjoying duty-free exemption under the said
 exhausted their initial shares; whereas, to give importers
                                                                  tariff quota shall not be charged against the indicative
 some degree of certainty and yet enable Community
                                                                  ceilings fixed under certain free trade agreements.
production to be disposed of on satisfactory terms, the
first tranche of the quota should be fixed at about 94%
of the full amount;                                               4 . The Common Customs Tariff duty shall be totally
                                                                  suspended within the limits of the above quota.
 Whereas Member States may exhaust their initial shares
 at different rates; whereas to provide for this eventuality
 and avoid disruption of supplies, any Member State                                         Article 2
 which has almost used up its initial share should draw
 an additional share from the reserve ; whereas each time         1 . The Community tariff quota referred to in Article 1
 its additional share is almost exhausted a Member State          shall be divided into two tranches.
 should draw a 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;        2.   A first tranche of 2 159 500 tonnes shall be allo­
 whereas this form of administration requires close col­          cated among the Member States. Member States' shares,
 laboration between the Member States and the Com­                which subject to Article 5 shall be valid from 1 January
 mission , which latter must be in a position to keep             until 31 December 1978 , shall be as follows :
 account of the extent to which the quota has been used
 up and to inform the Member States accordingly;                                                                 (tonnes)
                                                                           Benelux                              300 000
 Whereas if at a given date in the quota period a con­                     Denmark                              170 000
siderable quantity of a Member State's initial share                       Germany                              599 000
remains unused it is essential , to prevent a part of the                  France                               270 000
Community tariff quota from remaining unused in one
                                                                           Ireland                               49 500
Member State while it could be used in others, that such
State should return a significant proportion thereof to                    Italy                                   1 000
the reserve ;                                                              United Kingdom                       770 000
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom
of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxem­                  3 . The second tranche, of 140 500 tonnes, shall consti­
                                                                  tute the reserve .
bourg are united within and jointly represented by the
Benelux Economic Union, any transaction in respect of
the administration of the shares allocated to that
economic union may be' carried out by any one of its                                       Article 3
members,
                                                                 1.   If 90% or more of a Member State 's initial share as
                                                                 fixed in Article 2 (2 ) or of that share minus the portion
                                                                 returned to the reserve where Article 5 has been applied,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION                                      has been used up , it shall forthwith, by notifying the
                                                                 Commission, draw a second share, to the extent that the
                                                                 reserve so permits, equal to 15% of its initial share,
                                                                 rounded up as necessary to the next whole number.
                          Article 1
1 . During the period 1 January to 3 1 December 1978, a          (*) Entry under this subheading is subject to conditions to be
Community tariff quota of 2 300 000 tonnes shall be                   determined by the competent authorities.
 ---pagebreak--- 29 . 11 . 77                            Official Journal of the European Communities                              No L 305 /3
2 . If, after its initial share has been exhausted, 90% or         It shall inform the Member States, not later than 5
more of the second share drawn by a Member State has               October 1978 , of the amount still in reserve after
been used up, that Member State shall, in the manner               amounts have been returned thereto pursuant to Article
and to the extent provided in paragraph 1 , draw a third           5.
share equal to 7-5% of its initial share.
                                                                   It shall ensure that when a quantity exhausting the re­
3 . If, after its second share has been exhausted, 90%             serve is drawn, the amount so drawn does not exceed
or more of the third share drawn by a Member State                 the balance available, and to this end shall notify the
has been used up, that Member State shall, in the                  amount of that balance to the Member State making the
manner and to the extent provided in paragraph 1 ,                 last drawing.
draw a fourth share equal to the third.
This procedure shall apply until the reserve is
exhausted .                                                                                 Article 7
                                                                   1 . Member States shall take all appropriate measures
                                                                   to ensure that additional shares drawn pursuant to Ar­
4 . Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 , 2 and 3 , Member
States may draw lesser shares than those specified in              ticle 3 are opened in such a way that imports may be
those paragraphs if there are grounds for believing that
                                                                   charged without interruption against their accumulated
                                                                   share of the Community quota.
those specified may not be used in full. They shall in­
form the Commission of their reasons for applying this
provision.
                                                                   2. Member States shall take all measures necessary to
                                                                   ensure that the types of paper referred to in Article 1 (2 )
                                                                   included in this tariff quota are in fact intended for the
                            Article 4                              printing of newspapers, weekly papers or other period­
                                                                   icals of heading No 49.02, published at least 10 times
Additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3 shall be             per year .
valid until 31 December 1978 .
                                                                   3 . Member States shall ensure that importers of the
                                                                   products in question established in their territory have
                                                                   free access to the shares allocated to it.
                            Article 5
The Member States shall return to the reserve, not later          4. The extent to which a Member State has used up its
than 1 October 1978 , the unused portion of their initial         shares shall be determined on the basis of imports of the
share which, on 15 September 1978 , is in excess of 20%           products in question entered with the customs
of the initial amount. They may return a greater portion          authorities for home use.
if there are grounds for believing that such portion may
not be used in full .
                                                                                            Article 8
Member States shall, not later than 1 October 1978 ,               On receipt of a request from the Commission, the
notify the Commission of the total quantities of the               Member States shall notify it of the importations
products in question imported up to and including 15               charged against its share.
September 1978 and charged against the Community
tariff quota and of any portion of their initial shares
returned to the reserve.
                                                                                            Article 9
                                                                  Member States and the Commission shall cooperate
                                                                  closely to ensure that this Regulation is complied with .
                           Article 6
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2 and                                      Article 10
3 and shall, as soon as it has been notified, inform each
Member State of the extent to which the reserve has                This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
been used up .                                                      1978 .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 305 /4                       Official Journal of the European Communities                             29 . 11 . 77
            This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
            Done at Brussels, 21 November 1977 .
                                                                                  For the Council
                                                                                   The President
                                                                                    H. SIMONET