CELEX: 31977R2876
Language: en
Date: 1977-12-20 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2876/77 of 20 December 1977 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for prepared or preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Morocco (1978)

No L 332/4                         Official Journal of the European Communities                               24. 12. 77
                                  COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 2876/77
                                                of 20 December 1977
              opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff
              quotas for prepared or preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of
                       the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Morocco ( 1978)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                  of the Member States represent the following percen­
COMMUNITIES,                                                 tages of the imports into the Community from
                                                             Morocco of the products concerned :
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 43                      Member State          1974     1975          1976
and 1 1 3 thereof,
                                                             Benelux                         100      110           1 1 -3
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,           Denmark                          0-2      0-3            0-3
                                                             Germany                         11-3     10-6          23-3
                                                             France                         62-2      55-7          561
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia­         Ireland                          01       0-5            0-5
ment (*),                                                    Italy                             30      1-4            0-2
                                                             United Kingdom                  13-2     20-5            8-3
Whereas on 20 December 1977 the Council decided
to open two Community tariff quotas for prepared or
preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D         Whereas, in view of these factors and of the estimates
of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in              submitted by certain Member States, initial quota
Morocco ; whereas the respective quota volumes and           shares may be fixed approximately at the following
duties are fixed at 14 000 tonnes free of duty and           percentages :
6 000 tonnes at a duty rate of 1 0 % ; whereas these
tariff quotas are to apply from 1 January 1978 until                                    Of the quota       Of the quota
                                                                     Member State
the conclusion of the exchange of letters provided for                                         of
                                                                                        14 000 tonnes
                                                                                                                 of
                                                                                                           6 000 tonnes
in Article 19 of the Cooperation Agreement between
the Community and Morocco, until such time as
Community arrangements for imports of the products           Benelux                        13-49              9-54
in question are applied, or until 31 December 1978 ,         Denmark                          0-28             0-28
whichever shall be the earliest ; whereas these Commu­       Germany                        13-33             13-33
                                                             France                         59-52             42-59
nity tariff quotas should therefore be opened ;              Ireland                          0-36             0-37
                                                              Italy                           0-64              1-48
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure for all      United Kingdom                 12-38             32-41
Community importers equal and uninterrupted access
to the abovementioned quotas and uninterrupted
application of the rates laid down for these quotas to       Whereas, in order to take into account import trends
all imports of the products concerned into all Member         for the products concerned in the different Member
States until the quotas have been used up ; whereas,          States, each of the quota amounts should be divided
having regard to the principles mentioned above, the          into two instalments, the first instalment being allo­
Community nature of the quotas can be respected by            cated among the Member States and the second
allocating the Community tariff quotas among the              forming a reserve intended ultimately to cover the
Member States ; whereas, in order to reflect most accu­       requirements of the Member States which have used
 rately the actual development of the market in the           up their initial quota shares ; whereas, in order to
 products concerned, such allocation would be in              ensure a certain degree of security for importers in
 proportion to the needs of the Member States,                each Member State, the first instalment of the
assessed by reference both to the statistics of each          Community quotas should be determined at a level
State's imports from Morocco over a representative            which, under present circumstances, may be 90 % of
 period and to the economic outlook for the quota             each of the quota amounts ;
 period concerned ;
                                                              Whereas the initial quota shares of the Member States
Whereas, during the last three years for which statis­        may be used up at different times ; whereas, in order
 tics are available, the corresponding imports by each        to take this fact into account and avoid any break in
                                                              continuity, any Member State having used up almost
(•) OJ No C 299, 12. 12 . 1977, p. 60 .                       the whole of any one of its initial quota shares should
 ---pagebreak--- 24. 12. 77                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                No L 332/ 5
draw an additional quota share from the corres­              2. A first instalment of each quota shall be shared
ponding reserve ; whereas this must be done by each          among the Member States ; the respective shares
Member State when each of its additional quota shares        which, subject to Article 5, shall be valid until the end
is almost entirely used up, and repeated as many times       of the period specified in Article 1 , shall be as
as the reserve allows ; whereas the initial and addi­        follows :
tional quota shares must be available for use until the                                                              (tonnes)
end of the quota period ; whereas this method of
administration calls for close cooperation between                       Member State           Article 1 (2)
Member States and the Commission, which must, in
particular, be able to observe the extent to which the
quota amounts are used and inform Member States              Benelux                                1 700          515
thereof ;                                                    Denmark                                    35          15
                                                             Germany                                1 680          720
Whereas, if, at a given date in the quota period, a          France                                7 500         2 300
considerable quantity of the initial share remains in        Ireland                                    45          20
any Member State, it is essential that that State should     Italy                                      80          80
return a significant proportion to the reserve in order      United Kingdom                         1 560        1 750
to avoid part of the Community quota remaining
unused in one Member State when it could be used in                                   Total      12 600          5 400
others ;
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the                   3 . The second instalment of each quota, 1 400
Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of            tonnes and 600 tonnes respectively, shall constitute
Luxemburg are united within and jointly represented          the corresponding reserve.
by the Benelux Economic Union, any measure
concerning the administration of the quota shares allo­
cated to that economic union may be carried out by                                    Article 3
any one of its members,
                                                             1.    If 90 % or more of one of the initial shares of a
                                                            Member State, as laid down in Article 2 (2), or 90 %
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                               or more of that share less the amount returned into
                                                             the corresponding reserve, where the provisions of
                                                            Article 5 have been applied, has been exhausted, that
                        Article 1                           Member State shall proceed without delay, by noti­
                                                             fying the Commission, to draw a second share equal
1 . From 1 January 1978 until the conclusion of the         to 10 % of its initial share, rounded up to the next
exchange of letters referred to in Article 19 of the        unit where appropriate, to the extent that the amount
Cooperation Agreement between the Community and             in the reserve allows .
Morocco, until such time as Community import arran­
gements are applied or until 31 December 1978 ,              2.    If, after one or other of its initial shares has been
whichever shall be the earliest, a duty-free Commu­         exhausted, 90 % or more of the second share drawn
nity tariff quota of 14 000 tonnes shall be opened for      by a Member State has been used, that Member State
imports into the Community of prepared or preserved         shall proceed in the manner specified in paragraph 1
sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of the           to draw a third share equal to 5 % of its initial share,
Common Customs Tariff and originating in Morocco.           rounded up to the next unit where appropriate, to the
                                                            extent that the amount in the reserve allows .
2. From 1 January 1978 until the conclusion of the
exchange of letters referred to in Article 19 of the        3.     If, after one of its second shares has been
Cooperation Agreement between the Community and             exhausted, 90 % or more of the third share drawn by
Morocco, until such time as Community import arran­         a Member State has been used, that Member State
gements are applied or until 31 December 1978 ,             shall proceed in the manner specified in paragraph 1 ,
whichever shall be the earliest, a Community tariff         to draw a fourth share equal to the third.
quota of 6 000 tonnes at a duty rate of 10 % shall be
opened for imports into the Community of prepared           This process shall be applied until the reserve is
or preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04       exhausted .
D of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in
Morocco.
                                                            4.     By way of derogation to paragraphs 1 , 2 and 3,
                                                            the Member States may proceed to draw shares
                        Article 2                           smaller than those fixed in those paragraphs if there is
                                                            any reason to believe that those shares might not be
1.    The tariff quotas laid down in Article 1 shall be     used up . They shall inform the Commission of the
divided into two instalments .                              reasons which led them to apply this paragraph .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 332/6                        Official Journal of the European Communities                           24. 12. 77
                        Article 4                            and for this purpose, shall specify the amount thereof
                                                             to the Member State which makes the final drawing.
Each of the additional shares drawn pursuant to
Article 3 shall be valid until the end of the period                                Article 7
defined in Article 1 .
                                                             1.    The Member States shall take all appropriate
                        Article 5                            measures to ensure that when additional shares are
                                                             drawn pursuant to Article 3 it is possible for charges
The Member States shall return to the reserve, not           to be made without interruption against their accumu­
later than 1 October 1978 , the unused portion of their      lated shares of the Community tariff quotas.
initial share which, on 15 September 1978 , is in
excess of 20 % of the initial amount. They may return        2. The Member States shall ensure that importers
a larger quantity if there are reasons to believe that       of the said goods established in their territory have
such quantity might not be used.                             free access to the shares allocated to them .
The Member States shall, not later than 1 October            3 . The extent to which a Member State has used up
1978, notify the Commission of the total imports of          its share shall be determined on the basis of imports
the products concerned effected up to 15 September           of the products in question originating in Morocco
1978 inclusive and charged against the Community             when entered for home use.
quotas and, where appropriate, the proportion of their
initial shares which is being returned to each reserve.                              Article 8
                                                             At the Commission's request Member States shall
                        Article 6
                                                             inform it of imports of the products concerned actu­
The Commission shall keep account of the shares              ally charged against their shares.
opened by Member States in accordance with Articles
2 and 3 and shall inform each of them of the extent                                  Article 9
to which the reserves have been used as soon as it
receives the notifications .                                 The Member States and the Commission shall coop­
                                                             erate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
The Commission shall, not later than 5 October 1978 ,        observed.
notify Member States of the amount in each reserve
after the return of shares pursuant to Article 5.                                   Article 10
The Commission shall ensure that any drawing which           This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
uses up any reserve is limited to the balance available       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