CELEX: 31977R2747
Language: en
Date: 1977-12-05 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2747/77 of 5 December 1977 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 (1978)

13 . 12 . 77                     Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 318 /7
                                COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 2747/77
                                               of 5 December 1977
              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 ( 1978)
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
                                                           be divided between them ;
Economic Community, and in particular Article 113
thereof,
                                                           Whereas, taking into account an overall, provisional
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ,        quota volume of 5 500 tonnes, the following quanti­
                                                           ties may be allocated to each quality of the product in
                                                           question : 600 tonnes for extra-pure magnesium ,
Whereas, in an exchange of letters dated 30 June            1 325 tonnes for unwrought magnesium not in alloy
1967, confirmed in an exchange of letters dated 16         and 3 575 tonnes for unwrought magnesium in alloy ;
April 1973, the European Economic Community has            whereas these figures appear justified both by the
undertaken , as regards unwrought magnesium falling        former ratios of consumption of these qualities to
within tariff subheading 77.01 A, to open an annual        total consumption of magnesium and by the supply
Community tariff quota for a quantity such that             possibilities for these qualities of magnesium within
Community requirements for the said goods not               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 1978 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 tonnes ; whereas this assessment is based
on conservative estimates and later adjustments are
not excluded ; whereas the duties to be applied by the      Whereas, however, the available statistics of imports
new Member States under the said tariff quota must          into the Member States from third countries which
comply with the relevant provisions of the Act of           did not benefit from an equivalent tariff preference
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 percentage of total imports of the
inafter called 'extra-pure magnesium '), in magnesium       said goods ; whereas, from the information at present
containing 99-8 % or more, but less than 99-95 % , by       to hand, it would seem that imports of extra-pure
weight     of  pure    magnesium   (hereinafter   called    magnesium are effected almost wholly in the United
'unwrought magnesium not in alloy') and in magne            Kingdom :
 ---pagebreak--- No L 318 / 8                         Official Journal of the European Communities                               13 . 12 . 77
                                                                  should be fixed at 1 195 tonnes of unwrought magne­
                                     197 ?    1974        1975
                                                                  sium not in alloy and 3 150 tonnes of unwrought
                                                                  magnesium in alloy, the balances being held as the
                                                                  reserves ;
— for unwrought magne­
    sium not in alloy :
    Benelux                          6·55    23·18       1004     Whereas the initial shares may be used up more or
    Denmark                          0        0           0       less quickly ; whereas, therefore, in order to avoid
    Germany                         69·93    52·96       55·00    disrupting supplies, any Member State which has
    France                           9·39     7·11       18·18    almost used up one of its initial shares should draw a
     Ireland                         0·01     0·01        0       supplementary share from the relevant reserve ;
     Italy                           3·06     2·21        7·47    whereas this must be done by each Member State as
    United Kingdom                  11·06    14·53        9·31
                                                                  each one of its supplementary shares is almost used
— for       unwrought   magne­                                    up, as many times as the reserve allows ; whereas the
     sium in alloy :                                              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                         001      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        0·8 1
                                                                  Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a
                                                                  Member State has a considerable quantity of one of its
Whereas in view of these factors and of market fore­              initial shares left over, it is essential that it should
casts for these products in 1978 , it is necessary in the         return a significant proportion thereof to the relevant
case of extra-pure unwrought magnesium to allocate                reserve, to prevent a part of one or other quota volume
on an experimental basis the quota volume for this                from remaining unused in one Member State while it
quality to the Community reserve and to provide for               could be used in others ;
Member States which have requirements to be met to
be able to draw upon this reserve in appropriate quan­            Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium , the
tities ; whereas it is necessary to fix for the other quali­      Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
ties of magnesium initial percentage shares at approxi­           Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented
mately the following levels :                                     by the Benelux Economic Union , any measure
                                                                  concerning the administration of the shares allocated
— for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :                          to that economic union may be carried out by any
                                                                  one of its members ,
      Benelux                                       16·74
      Denmark                                         0·04
      Germany                                      67·80
      France                                          3·34        HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
      Ireland                                         0·04
      Italy                                           0·33
      United Kingdom                                1 1·71                                Article I
— for unwrought magnesium in alloy :                               1.     From 1 January to 31 December 1978 , a
                                                                  Community tariff quota of 5 500 tonnes shall be
      Benelux                                         2·12
      Denmark                                         0·03
                                                                  opened in the Community for unwrought magnesium
                                                                  falling within subheading 77.01 A of the Common
      Germany                                      96·50
                                                                  Customs Tariff .
      France                                          0·03
      Ireland                                         0·02
                                                                  2.      The volume of the tariff quota shall be divided
      Italy                                           0·80
                                                                  as follows :
      United Kingdom                                  0·50
                                                                  (a) 600 tonnes for unwrought magnesium containing
Whereas, in order to take more accurate account of                     99-95 % or more by weight of pure magnesium
future import trends for unwrought magnesium not in                    ('extra-pure magnesium '), intended for the nuclear
alloy and in alloy, the total quota volume for these                   industry . Control of the use for this special
qualities should be divided into two tranches, the first               purpose shall be effected pursuant to the relevant
being allocated among the Member States and the                        Community provisions ;
second held as a reserve to cover at a later date the             (b) 1 325      tonnes   for    unwrought      magnesium
requirements of Member States who have used up                         containing 99-8 % or more, but less than
their initial shares ; whereas, in order to guarantee                  99-95 % , by weight of pure magnesium
importers some degree of security, the first tranches                  ('unwrought magnesiun: not in alloy') ;
 ---pagebreak--- 13 . 12. 77                          Official Journal of the European Communities                               No L 318 / 9
(c) 3 575        tonnes   for unwrought        magnesium       reserve where Article 6 is applied, has been used up,
     containing less than 99-8 % by weight of pure             that Member State shall without delay, by notifying
     magnesium ('unwrought magnesium in alloy').               the Commission , draw a second share equal to 10 %
                                                               of its initial share, where necessary rounded off
3.      Imports of the said goods shall not be counted         upwards to the next unit, in so far as permitted by the
under the tariff quota if they are already free of             amount of the reserve .
customs duties under other preferential tariff treat­
ment .                                                         2.      If, after one or other of its initial shares has been
                                                               used up, 90 % or more of the second share drawn by
4. Within the tariff quota the Common Customs                  a Member State has been used up, that Member State
Tariff duties shall be totally suspended .                      shall , in accordance with the conditions laid down in
                                                                paragraph 1 , draw a third share equal to 5 % of its
                           Article 2
                                                                initial share, where necessary rounded off upwards to
                                                                the next unit .
 1.     The volume of 600 tonnes referred to in Article
 1 (2) (a), allocated to extra-pure unwrought magnesium         3.     If, after one or other of its second shares has
 intended for the nuclear industry, shall be allotted to        been used up, 90 % or more of the third share drawn
 the Community reserve .                                        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        This process shall continue to apply until the reserves
 cient share of the reserve thus set up.                        are used up .
                           Article 3                            4.      Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 , 2 and 3, a
                                                                Member State may draw shares lower than those fixed
 1 . A first tranche of each of the volumes provided            in these paragraphs if there are grounds for believing
 for in Article 1 (2) (b) and (c), which amounts to 1 195       that those fixed might not be used up . It shall inform
 tonnes for unwrought magnesium not in alloy and                the Commission of its reasons for applying this para­
 3 150 tonnes for magnesium in alloy shall be divided           graph .
 among the Member States . The shares, which are valid
 up to 31 December 1978 , subject to Article 6, amount                                    Article 5
 to the following quantities :
 (a) for unwrought magnesium not in alloy :                     Supplementary shares drawn pursuant to Article 4
                                                                shall be valid until 31 December 1978 .
                                                (ton ties)
      Benelux                                    200                                      Article 6
      Denmark                                       0-5
      Germany                                    810             Member States shall return to the reserve, not later
      France                                       40            than 1 October 1978 , the unused portion of their
      Ireland                                       0-5          initial shares which, on 15 September 1978 , is in
       Italy                                        4            excess of 20 % of the initial amount. They may return
       United Kingdom                            140             a greater portion if there are grounds for believing
                                                                 that such portion may not be used in full .
 (b) for unwrought magnesium in alloy :                          Member States shall, not later than 1 October 1978 ,
                                                (tonnes)         notify the Commission of the total imports of the
       Benelux                                       67          products concerned effected under the Community
       Denmark                                          1        quotas up to and including 15 September 1978 and,
       Germany                                   3 040           where appropriate, the proportion of each of their
       France                                           1        initial shares that they are returning to each of the
       Ireland                                          1        reserves .
       Italy                                          25
       United Kingdom                                 15                                   Article 7
                                                                 The Commission shall keep an account of the shares
  2.     The second tranches , of 130 tonnes and 425             opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2, 3
  tonnes respectively, shall be held as Community                and 4 and shall , as soon as it has been notified, inform
  reserves .
                                                                 each State of the extent to which the reserve has been
                                                                  used up .
                           Article 4
                                                                  It shall inform the Member States , not later than 5
  1.      If 90 % or more of one of a Member State 's             October 1978 , of the amount still in reserve after
  initial shares as specified in Article 3 ( 1 ), or of that      amounts have been returned thereto pursuant to
  share minus the portion returned to the relevant                Article 6 .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 318 / 10                      Official Journal of the European Communities                           13 . 12. 77
It shall ensure that the drawing which uses up a                                     Article 9
reserve is limited to the balance available , and to this
end shall specify the amount thereof to the Member           Upon a request from the Commission, Member States
State making the last drawing.                               shall inform it of imports actually charged against
                                                             their shares .
                         Article 8
1.     Member States shall take all measures necessary                               Article 10
to ensure that supplementary shares drawn pursuant
to Article 4 are opened in such a way that imports
may be charged without interruption against their            The Member States and the Commission shall coop­
accumulated shares in the Community quota.                   erate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
                                                             observed .
2. Member States shall ensure that importers esta­
blished in their territory have free access to the shares
allocated to them .
                                                                                     Article 11
3 . The extent to which a Member State has used up
its shares shall be determined on the basis of the quan­     This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
tities of the said goods entered for home use .               1978 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 5 December 1977 .
                                                                         For the Council
                                                                            The President
                                                                            A. HUMBLET