CELEX: 31974R2421
Language: en
Date: 1974-09-23 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 2421/74 of the Council of 23 September 1974 on the opening, allocation and administration of Community tariff quotas for bullion lead, and unwrought lead other than bullion lead, falling within subheadings 78.01 A I and A II of the Common Customs Tariff

No L 261 / 10                            Official Journal of the European Communities                             27. 9 . 74
                                  REGULATION (EEC) No 2421/74 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                      of 23 September 1974
              on the opening, allocation and administration of Community tariff quotas for bullion
              lead, and unwrought lead other than bullion lead, falling within subheadings 78.01 A I
                                            and A II of the Common Customs Tariff
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                         as to grade and intended use to be charged against
COMMUNITIES,                                                        that quota ;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                        Whereas, in order to make greater allowance for
European Economic Community, and in particular                      future trends in imports of the products in question,
Article 28 thereof ;                                                the quota for each grade of unwrought lead should
                                                                    be divided into two tranches, the first to be allocated
Having regard to the draft Regulation submitted by                  among all the Member States, the second to form a
the Commission ;                                                    reserve intended to cover any subsequent require­
                                                                    ments of Member States which have used up their
Whereas Protocol 14 to the Act of Accession (*)                     initial shares ; whereas, in order to ensure a certain
provides that the Community shall open each year                    degree of security for importers, the initial
nil duty Community tariff quotas for bullion lead                   tranches should be set at 315 600 metric tons, in
(unwrought lead for refining, containing 0-02 % or                  the case of bullion lead, and 38 500 metric tons,
more by weight of silver), falling within subheading                in the case of unwrought lead other than bullion
78.01 A I and for lead other than bullion lead,                     lead, the remainder constituting the reserve ;
falling within subheading 78.01 A II, the amount of                 whereas, having regard to estimates taking account
the quota to correspond, in the case of bullion lead,               of market trends in these products, the initial shares
 to the total amount in respect of which requests 'have             may be allocated as follows :
 been received by Member States, plus a Community                                                    — metric tons —
reserve and, in the case of unwrought lead other                                            bullion lead     unwrought lead,
than bullion lead, to decrease annually from                                                                      other
 1 January 1975 by an amount fixed for 1974 at                      Benelux                    35 000            14 460
55 000 metric tons to achieve the abolition of the
quota by 1978 ; whereas the Protocol also provides                  Denmark                        50               486
that the new Member States are to share in the                       Germany                   90 000             8 127
tariff quotas from 1 January 1974 ; whereas the
                                                                     France                       500               200
 duties to be applied by the new Member States
 within those tariff quotas must comply with the                     Ireland                       50               100
 relevant provisions of the Act of Accession ; whereas
                                                                     Italy                     40 000             8 127
 the Community tariff quotas in question should
therefore be opened on 1 January 1975 for 41 000                     United Kingdom           150 000             7 000
 metric tons of unwrought lead other than bullion
lead and for 350 000 metric tons ( on the basis of                   Whereas Member States may use up their initial
 Member States' estimates) of bullion lead ;                         shares at different rates ; whereas to avoid disruption
                                                                     of supplies on this account any Member State which
 Whereas, in view of the minimal interpenetration of                 has almost used up either of its initial shares should
 the markets in bullion lead and in other unwrought                  draw an additional share from the corresponding
 lead and of the lack of complete statistics relating                reserve ; whereas this should be done by each
                                                                     Member State when each of its additional shares
 to these two grades of metal , it does not seem
 possible to base the allocation of the Community                    has been almost used up, and so on as many times
 tariff quotas in question on previous data ; whereas                as the reserve allows ; whereas the initial and
                                                                     additional shares should be valid until the end of
 the figure of 41 000 metric tons for unwrought lead
  other than bullion lead takes account of the need                  the quota period ; whereas this form of adminis­
 to maintain a balance in the amounts chargeable                     tration requires close collaboration between the
 against the tariff quota for unwrought lead in general              Member States and the Commission, which latter
 in order to protect the foundry industry ; whereas                  must, in particular, be able to keep a record of the
 Member States should therefore be at liberty to                     extent to which the quota has been used up and
 authorize only imports satisfying certain conditions                to inform the Member States accordingly ;
                                                                     Whereas, if at a given date in the quota period a
 (*) OJ No L 73 , 27. 3 . 1972, p. 171 .                             considerable quantity of either of a Member State's
 ---pagebreak---  27. 9 . 74                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                      No L 261 /11
 initial shares remains unused, it is essential that it                 to that Economic Union may be carried out by any
 return a significant proportion to the corresponding                   one of its members,
 reserve, so as to avoid a part of either quota
 remaining unused in one Member State when it could                    HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
 be used in others ;
                                                                                               Article 1
 Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the King­
 dom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of                          1 . During the period from 1 January to 31
Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented                    December 1975 Community tariffs quotas shall be
by the Benelux Economic Union, any transaction in                       opened in the Community for the following products
respect of the administration of the shares allocated                  within the following limits :
                                                                                                          Amount of
                 CCT heading
                     No                                      Description                                  the quota
                                                                                                       (in metric tons)
                                                                            /
               78.01 A I          Unwrought lead containing 0·02 %> or more by weight
                                  of silver for refining (bullion lead)                                    350 000
               78.01 A II         Other unwrought lead                                                      41000
2. Where the products in question are already                           (b) unwrought lead, other
imported duty-free under other preferential tariff                           Benelux                 14 460 metric tons
 arrangements entered into by certain Member States,
in particular under free trade agreements, such                              Denmark                     486 metric tons
imports shall not be charged against these tariff                            Germany                  8 127 metric tons
quotas.
                                                                             France                      200 metric tons
3 . The Common Customs Tariff duty shall be                                 Ireland                      100 metric tons
totally suspended within these quotas.                                      Italy                     8 127 metric tons
                                                                            United Kingdom            7 000 metric tons
4. Within these quotas, new Member States shall
apply duties calculated in accordance with the
relevant provisions of the Act of Accession.                           2.      The second tranche of 34 400 metric tons and
                                                                       2 500 metric tons respectively, shall constitute the
                                                                       reserves .
                          Article 2
                                                                                               Article 3
1.      The first tranches of the quota referred to in
Article 1 of 315 600 metric tons of bullion lead and                    1.     As soon as a Member State has used 90 % or
38 500 metric tons of unwrought lead other than                        more of one of its initial shares as fixed in Article
bullion lead shall be allocated among the Member                       2 ( 1 ), or of that share minus any portion returned
States. The shares which, subject to Article 5 , shall                 to the corresponding reserve pursuant to Article 5 ,
be valid from 1 January to 31 December 1975 , shall,                   it shall forthwith, by notifying the Commission,
for each Member State, be as follows :                                 draw a second share, to the extent that the reserve
                                                                       so permits, equal to 10 % of its initial share
(a) unwrought lead for refining, containing 0-02 %                     rounded up as necessary to the next whole number.
      or more by weight of silver (bullion lead) :
      Benelux                  35 000 metric tons                      2. As soon as a Member State, after using up
      Denmark                       50 metric tons                     one of its initial shares, has used 90 % or more of
                                                                       its second share, that Member State shall forthwith
      Germany                  90 000 metric tons                     and in the manner and to the extent provided in
      France                      500 metric tons                     paragraph 1 draw a third share equal to 5 % of its
                                                                      initial share .
      Ireland                       50 metric tons
      Italy                   40 000 metric tons
                                                                      3 . As soon as a Member State, after exhausting
     United Kingdom          150 000 metric tons                      one of its second shares, has used 90 % or more
 ---pagebreak--- No L 261 / 12                      Official Journal of the European Communities                              27. 9. 74
of its third share, that Member State shall, forthwith,      Articles 2 and 3 and shall, as soon as it receives
in accordance with the same conditions, draw a               notification, inform each State of the extent to which
fourth share equal to the third.                             the reserve has been used up.
This procedure shall apply until the reserves are            It shall, not later than 15 November 1975, inform
exhausted.                                                   the Member States of the amount still in reserve
                                                             following any return of shares pursuant to Article 5 .
4. By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 , 2 and
3, a Member State may draw lesser amounts than               It shall ensure that the drawing which exhausts a
those specified therein if there are grounds for             reserve does not exceed the balance available and,
believing that the may not be used in full. It shall         to this end, shall notify the amount thereof to the
inform the Commission of its reasons for applying            Member State making the last drawing.
this provision.
                                                                                     Article 8
                         Article 4
                                                              1.     Each Member State shall take all appropriate
                                                             measures to ensure that additional shares drawn
Additional share drawn pursuant to Article 3 shall be        pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that
valid until 31 December 1975 .
                                                             imports may be charged without interruption against
                                                             its accumulated share of the Community quota.
                         Article 5
                                                             2. Each Member State shall ensure that importers
                                                              of the products in question established in its territory
A Member State which, on 15 October 1975 , has               have free access to the shares allocated to it.
 not exhausted one of its initial shares shall, not
later than 31 October 1975 , return to the correspond­        3.     Each Member State shall administer its share
ing reserve any unused portion in excess of 20 %              of the bullion lead quota according to a system of
of the initial amount. It may return a greater                prior allocation.
quantity if there are grounds for believing that such
may not be used in full.                                      4.     The extent to which a Member State has used
                                                              up its shares shall be determined on the basis of the
Member States shall, not later than 31 October                imports of the product in question entered with the
 1975, notify the Commission of the total quantities          customs authorities for home use.
 of the products in question imported up to and
including 15 October 1975 and charged against the
 Community quota and of any portion of each initial                                  Article 9
share returned to either reserve.
                                                              Member States shall notify the Commission at regular
                                                              intervals of the imports charged against their shares.
                         Article 6
                                                                                     Article 10
Member States may restrict the unwrought lead
other than bullion lead which may be charged                  The     Member States    and the    Commission shall
 against their quota shares to lead of certain grades         cooperate closely to ensure that the provisions of
or lead to be used for certain purposes.                      this Regulation are observed.
                         Article 7                                                   Article 11
 The Commission shall keep an account of the                  This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
shares opened by the Member States pursuant to                1975 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 23 September 1974.
                                                                          For the Council
                                                                           The President
                                                                          Ch . PONCELET