CELEX: 31997R2352
Language: en
Date: 1997-11-27 00:00:00
Title: COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2352/97 of 27 November 1997 introducing specific measures in respect of imports of rice originating in the overseas countries and territories

28 . 11 . 97      | EN               Official Journal of the European Communities                                  L 326/21
                                      COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2352/97
                                                      of 27 November 1997
                    introducing specific measures in respect of imports of rice originating in the
                                               overseas countries and territories
    THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                      disturb the functioning of the association of these OCTs
                                                                     and the Community; whereas these measures should not
    Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European            exceed the limits of what is strictly necessary to remedy
                                                                     the difficulties that have arisen :
    Community,
   Having regard to Council Decision 91 /482/EEC of 25               Whereas, to comply with these goals, arrangements for
   July 1991 on the association of the overseas countries and       the surveillance of imports originating in the OCTs under
   territories with the European Economic Community ('),            the conditions laid down by Decision 91 /482/EEC should
   and in particular Article 109 thereof, in conjunction with       be introduced from 1 December 1997 until the Commis­
   Annex IV, Article 1 ,                                            sion has adopted arrangements for the application of the
                                                                    Council Decision on the revision of the arrangements;
                                                                    whereas a monthly quantity should therefore be fixed on
   Following consultation of the Committee established by           the basis of one twelfth of the total annual quantity of
   Article 1 (2) of Annex IV to Decision 91 /482/EEC,               1 60 000 tonnes laid down in the last draft which secured
                                                                    the broadest agreement in the Council; whereas above
   Whereas the safeguard measures in respect of imports of
                                                                    that figure applications should be scrutinised particularly
                                                                    carefully on the basis of an assessment of the situation on
   rice originating in the overseas countries and territories       the Community market and the trend thereof;
  (OCTs) introduced by Council Regulation (EC) No
   1036/97 (2) expire on 30 November 1997; whereas the
   Council adopted amendments to Decision 91 /482/EEC;
                                                                    Whereas the Dutch authorities have sent the Commission
  whereas, however, until the implementing measures
  required by the amendments to the arrangements made               a decision by the Ministers of Economic Affairs and
  by this Decision have been adopted, specific surveillance         Finance of the Netherlands Antilles establishing, for the
  measures are required;                                            purposes of Annex II to Decision 91 /482/EEC, a
                                                                    minimum price for the export to the Community of rice
                                                                    originating in the Netherlands Antilles; whereas that
  Whereas the import of unlimited quantities of rice origin­        measure could help avoid serious disturbance to the
  ating in the OCTs threatens seriously to disturb the              Community market;
  Community market in rice; whereas, in particular, the
  import of large quantities of rice originating in the OCTs
  since 1 December 1997 threatens seriously to undermine           Whereas, however, that measure, which is, in any case,
  the Community rice market during the 1997/98 market­             limited to a single OCT, is not such as to render unneces­
  ing year; whereas the risk of large quantities of imports        sary the arrangements for the surveillance of the Com­
 from the OCTs is all the greater because the Council has          munity market in rice required for the reasons set out
 agreed to limit the quantities which may be imported              above;
 from them as part of the mid-term revision of the ar­
 rangements under Decision 91 /482/EEC but that agree­
 ment has not yet come into force;                                 Whereas, in order not to change in a sudden and unex­
                                                                   pected fashion the current practices regarding imports of
 Whereas on 13 November 1997 the Commission decided                products originating in the OCTs in this sector, the provi­
 that specific measures should therefore be taken;                 sions applying to the submission of applications for
                                                                   licences laid down by Regulation (EC) No 1036/97 should
                                                                   remain in force;
 Whereas the Italian Government on 10 November 1997
 and the Greek Government on 12 November 1997
 requested to the Commission under Article 109 of De­             Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation
 cision 91 /482/EEC to extend the safeguard measures in           either complement or derogate from Commission Regula­
 respect of rice imported from the OCTs;                          tion (EEC) No 3719/88 (3), as last amended by Regulation
                                                                  (EC) No 1404/97 (4), and Regulation (EEC) No 1 162/95 (s),
                                                                  as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 932/97 (6),
Whereas Article 109 (2) of Decision 91 /482/EEC requires
priority to be given to such measures as would least
                                                                  0    OJ  L 331 , 2. 12. 1988, p. 1.
                                                                  (4)  OJ  L 194,  23. 7. 1997, p. 5.
(') OJ L 263, 19. 9. 1991 , p. 1 .                                (5)  OJ  L 117,  24. 5. 1995, p. 2.
(2) OJ L 151 , 10. 6. 1997, p. 8 .                                (6)  OJ  L 135,  27. 5. 1997, p. 2.
 ---pagebreak---   L 326/22              EN              Official Journal of the European Communities                                 28 . 11 . 97
  HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
                                                                       — Tullivapaa (päätöksen 91 /482/ETY, 101 artikla)
                                                                       — Tullfri (beslut 91 /482/EEG, artikel 101 ).
                            Article 1                              2. Notwithstanding Article 8 (4) of Regulation (EEC)
                                                                    No 3719/88, the quantity entered for free circulation may
  From 1 December 1997 imports into the Community of               not exceed that set out in sections 17 and 18 of the
  rice originating in the OCTs falling within CN code 1 006        import licence. To that end, the figure '0' shall be entered
  and benefiting from exemption from customs duties shall          in section 19 of the licence .
  be subject to this Regulation .
                                                                   3 . Notwithstanding Article 9 of Regulation (EEC) No
                                                                   3719/88, the rights arising from import licences shall not
                                                                   be transferable .
                            Article 2
                                                                   4. Notwithstanding Article 10 of Regulation (EEC) No
  1 . Applications for import licences shall be lodged             1162/95, the amount of the security in respect of the
 with the competent authorities of the Member States.              import licences shall be equal to 50 % of the customs
                                                                   duty calculated in accordance with Article 11 of Regula­
 2. Applications for import licences shall be for a                tion (EC) No 3 072/95 (') applicable on the date on which
 quantity of not less than 100 tonnes and not more than            the application was lodged.
 2 000 tonnes of rice .
                                                                   5. The concept 'originating products' for the purposes
 3.     Applications for import licences shall be accompan­        of applying this Regulation and the administrative
 ied by:                                                           methods relating to it shall be as defined in Annex II to
                                                                   Decision 91 /482/ EEC .
— proof that the applicant is a natural or legal person
      who has carried out a commercial activity in the rice
      sector for at least 12 months and is registered in the                                Article 4
      Member State in which the application is submitted,
                                                                   1 . On the day on which licence applications are
— a written declaration by the applicant stating that he          lodged, the Member States shall notify the Commission
      has not submitted more than one application on the          by telex or fax of the quantities covered by licence ap­
      day in question. Where an applicant submits more            plications, broken down by eight-digit CN code and by
      than one application for an import licence, all his         country of origin, the number of the licence applied for
      applications shall be rejected.                             and the name and address of the applicant.
                                                                  The above information must be notified separately from
                            Article 3                             that relating to other import licence applications covering
                                                                  rice and in accordance with the same procedure.
 1 . The licence application and the import licence shall         2. Without prejudice to paragraph 3, import licences
contain the following indications:                                shall be issued on the 11th working day following that on
(a) section 8 shall show the country of origin and 'yes'         which the application was lodged.
      shall be marked with a cross;
                                                                  3 . If the quantities applied for exceed the monthly
(b) section 20 of the licence shall bear one of the follow­      total of 13 300 tonnes of rice expressed as the equivalent
      ing entries:                                               in husked rice and, on the basis of an assessment of the
                                                                 Community market, this situation threatens to substan­
     — Exención del derecho de            aduana (Decision       tially disturb that market, the Commission shall, within
          91 /482/CEE, artículo 101 )                             10 working days following the day the quantity was
                                                                 exceeded :
     — Toldfri (artikel 101 i afgørelse 91 /482/EØF)
     — Zollfrei (Beschluß 91 /482/EWG, Artikel 101 )             — fix a percentage reduction to be applied to all the
                                                                      applications lodged on the day the quantity was
     — Απαλλαγή από τον τελωνειακό δασμό (από­                        exceeded,
         φαση 91 /482/EOK, άρθρο 101 )
     — Exemption from customs duty (Decision                     — reject applications made after the day on which the
         91 /482/EEC, Article 101 )                                   quantity was exceeded,
     — Exemption        du   droit   de  douane    (Decision     — suspend the lodging of new applications for that
         91 /482/CEE, article 101 )                                   month .
     — Esenzione dal dazio doganale               (Decisione     4. If the quantity for which the import licence is issued
         91 /482/CEE, articolo 101 )                             is less than the quantity applied for, the amount of the
     — Vrijgesteld van douanerecht (Besluit 91 /482/EEG,         security referred to in Article 3 (4) shall be reduced
         artikel 101 )                                           proportionately.
     — Isenção de direito aduaneiro (Decisão 91 /482/CEE,
         artigo 101 ?)                                            1 OJ L 329, 30. 12. 1995, p. 18 .
 ---pagebreak--- 28 . 11 . 97         EN                Official Journal of the European Communities                                L 326/23
5. If paragraph 3 is applied, the application for a              The above information must be notified separately from
licence may be withdrawn within one working day follow­          that relating to other import licence applications covering
ing publication of the Regulation laying down the                rice and in accordance with the same procedure .
percentage reduction . The security shall be released
immediately.                                                                               Article 6
                          Article 5                              1.     Regulation (EEC) No 3719/88 shall apply, including
                                                                 Article 33 (5) thereof.
Member States shall notify the Commission by telex or
fax and in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation :        2. Regulation (EEC) No 1162/95 shall apply without
                                                                 prejudice to this Regulation . However, by derogation from
— within two working days of their issue, of the quant­          Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1162/95, import licences
     ities, broken down by eight-digit CN code and               for husked, wholly-milled, semi-milled rice and broken
     country of origin, covered by the import licences           rice shall be valid from the date on which they were actu­
     issued, with the date of issue, the number of the
     licence and the name and address of the holder,
                                                                 ally issued until the end of the third month following that
                                                                 date, pursuant to Article 21 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No
— on the last working day of the month following the             3719/ 88 .
    month of release for free circulation, of the quantities,
    broken down by eight-digit CN code and country of                                      Article 7
    origin, actually released for free circulation, with the
    date of release, the number of the licence and the           This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 December
    name and address of the holder.                              1997 and shall apply until 31 January 1998 .
                 This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
                 States .
                 Done at Brussels, 27 November 1997.
                                                                            For the Commission
                                                                              Franz FISCHLER
                                                                       Member of the Commission
 ---pagebreak--- L 326/24           I EN I                 Official Journal of the European Communities                     28 . 11 . 97
                                                              ANNEX
                                             RICE — REGULATION (EC) No 2352/97
            Application for an import licence (')
            Issue of an import licence (')
            Release for free circulation (')
            To: DG VI-C-2 Fax: (00 32) 2 296 60 21
            From :
                 Date
                                     No of
                                                     CN code
                                                                 Quantity   Country    Name and address
                                    licence                      (tonnes)  of origin   of applicant/holder
         (') Delete as appropriate.