CELEX: 31975R3144
Language: en
Date: 1975-11-24
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 3144/75 of the Council of 24 November 1975 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for fresh or dried hazelnuts, shelled or otherwise, falling within subheading ex 08.05 G of the Common Customs Tariff, originating in Turkey (1976)

No L 317/ 18                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                 8 . 12 . 75
                                  REGULATION (EEC) No 3144/75 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                        of 24 November 1975
               opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota
               for fresh or dried hazelnuts, shelled or otherwise, falling within subheading ex 08.05 G
                                 of the Common Customs Tariff, originating in Turkey ( 1976)
  THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,                             that the rates on which the new Member States shall
                                                                        base those reductions shall be those which they apply
                                                                        at any given moment to non-member countries and
                                                                        that the rates fixed as a result of the reductions
  Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro­                    regarding the products listed, in particular, in An­
 pean Economic Community,                     and  in  particular       nex 6 to the Additional Protocol — and which
  Articles 43 and 113 thereof;                                          include hazelnuts — may in no case be lower than
                                                                        those applied by the new Member States with
                                                                        reference to the Community as originally constituted :
  Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;                   whereas the reduction to be applied by the new
                                                                      . Member States within the framework of the tariff
                                                                        quota under consideration must therefore, in certain
                                                                        cases, be limited to 60% ;
  Having regard to the Opinion of the European
  Parliament (*);
                                                                        Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure to all
                                                                        importers of the Member States equal and uninter­
  Whereas under Article 1 of Council Regulation (EEC)                   rupted access to the said quota and uninterrupted
  No 3375/73 (2) of 10 December 1973 concerning the                      application of the rate laid down for that quota to all
  importation into the Community of certain agricul­                    imports of the products concerned into all Member
  tural products originating in Turkey, the Community                   States until the quota has been used up ; whereas
  must reduce by 37-5% the duty applied to the import                   having regard to the above principles, the Community
  of fresh or dried hazelnuts, shelled or otherwise,                    nature of the quota can be respected by allocating
  falling within subheading ex 08.05 G of the Common                    the Community tariff quota among the Member
  Customs Tariff, within the limit of a Community                        States ; whereas, to reflect most accurately the actual
  tariff quota of 21 700 metric tons ; whereas the Com­                  development of the market in the products concerned,
  munity tariff quota concerned should therefore be                      such allocation should be in proportion to the needs
  opened for 1976 ; whereas the application of a 37-5%                   of the Member States, assessed by reference both to
  reduction to the Common Customs Tariff duty would                      the statistics relating to imports from Turkey over
  result in a quota duty of 2-5% for the Community as                    a representative period, and to the economic outlook
  originally constituted ; whereas, as regards the new                   for the quota period concerned ;
  Member States, it should be noted that Article 2 ( 1 )
  and (3 ) of the Interim Agreement bringing into force
  certain provisions of the Supplementary Protocol                       Whereas, on the basis of the statistics at present
  provides that the reductions of customs duties                         available, imports into the Member States in 1972,
  pursuant to the Association Agreement shall be                         1973 and 1974 of the products concerned, originating
  applied by the new Member States^ from the entry                       in Turkey, have developed as follows and represent
■ into force of the Interim Agreement in the pro­                        the following percentages of total imports into the
  portions and according to the time limits laid down,                   Community :
   (!) OJ No C 257, 10. 11 . 1975 , p. 38 .
   ( 2) OJ No L 345, 15 . 12 . 1973 , p . 1 .
 ---pagebreak--- 8 . 12 . 75                         Official Journal of the European Communities                                No L 317/ 19
                                                       1972                     1973                 1974
                                             metric tons     %        metric tons      %   metric tons     %
                 Germany                       36 776       70-59      39 133        70-16  34 515        64-29
                 Benelux                        5 220       10-02        3 323        5-96   4 500         8-38
                 France                         4 906        9-42        6 170       11-06   5 680        10-58
                 Italy                             197       0-38        2 062        3-70   2 473         4-61
                 Denmark                           795       1-53          975        1-75      875        1-63
                 Ireland                          424        0-81          201        0-36      619        1-15
                 United Kingdom                 3 777        7-25        3 910        7-01   5 026         9-36
                                               52 095                  55 774               53 688
Whereas , taking into account these figures and the               cooperation between the Member States and the
foreseeable development of the product concerned                  Commission, which must in particular be able to
during 1976 and, in particular, the forecasts made by             observe the extent to which the quota volume is used
some Member States, the initial shares may be fixed               up and inform the Member States thereof;
 approximately at the following percentages :
           Germany                           65-93                Whereas if, at a specified date in the quota period,
          Benelux                            10-14                a considerable balance remains in any Member State,
                                                                  it is essential that the Member State should return
          France                              8-20                a certain proportion thereof to the reserve, in order
          Italy                               0-25                to avoid part of the Community quota remaining
                                                                  unused in one Member State when it could be used
           Denmark                            2-67
                                                                  in others ; whereas, taking into account the seasonal
           Ireland                            1-66                nature of imports, it seems appropriate to fix the
          United Kingdom                     11-15                transfer limit or 40% of the initial share ;
                                                                  Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium , the Kingdom
Whereas in order to take into account the import                  of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxem­
 trends for the product concerned in the Member                   bourg are united in and represented by the Benelux
 States, the quota volume should be divided into two              Economic Union, any measure concerning the ad­
instalments, the first instalment being allocated to the          ministration of the quota shares allocated to that
Member States, and the second forming a reserve                   economic union may be carried out by any of its
intended ultimately to cover the requirements of the              members,
 Member States, should their initial share be used up ;
 whereas, in order to ensure a certain degree of
 security to importers, the first instalment of the
 Community quota should be determined at a rela­                  HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
 tively high level, which under present circumstances
 could be approximately 80 % of the quota volume ;
                                                                                           Article 1
 Whereas the initial shares may be used up sooner or
 later ; whereas, in order to take this fact into account          1 . From 1 January to 31 December 1976 a Com­
 and to avoid any break in continuity, it is important            munity tariff quota of 21 700 metric tons shall be
 that any Member State which has used up almost all               opened in the Community for fresh or dried hazel­
 its initial share should draw an additional share from           nuts, shelled or otherwise, falling within subheading
 the reserve ; whereas this must be done as and when              ex 08.05 G of the Common Customs Tariff,
 each of its additional shares in the quota is almost              originating in Turkey.
 entirely used up, and repeated as often as the reserve
 allows ; whereas the initial and additional shares must
 be available for use until the end of the quota period ;         2 . Within this tariff quota, the Common Customs
 whereas this method of administration calls for close            Tariff duty is suspended at 2-5% .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 317/20                           Official Journal of the European Communities                              8 . 12 . 75
3 . The new Member States shall apply within this                4. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 1 ,
Community tariff quota, the customs duties calculated            2 and 3 , a Member State may proceed to draw shares
in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Act            smaller than those fixed in those paragraphs if there
of Accession, the Interim Agreement and Regulation               is reason to believe that those shares might not be
(EEC) No 3375/73 .                                               used up . They shall inform the Commission of the
                                                                 reasons which led them to apply this paragraph.
4. This tariff quota shall be allocated and admin­
istered in accordance with the following provisions.
                                                                                          Article 4
                          Article 2
                                                                 Each of the additional shares drawn pursuant to
                                                                 Article 3 shall be valid until 31 December 1976 .
1 . The tariff quota laid down in Article 1 ( 1 ) shall
be divided into two instalments .
                                                                                          Article 5
2. A first instalment, amounting to 17 700 metric
tons, shall be shared among the Member States ; the              The Member States shall return to the reserve, not
shares, which subject to Article 5 shall be valid until          later than 1 October 1976, the unused portion of
31 December 1976, shall be as follows :                          their initial share which, on 15 September 1976, is in
                                                                 excess of 40% of their initial amount. They may
         Germany                11 669 metric tons ,
                                                                 return a larger portion if there are grounds for
         Benelux                 1 795 metric tons,              believing that such portion may not be used in full.
         France                  1 451 metric tons,
         Italy                      45 metric tons,              The Member States shall, not later than 1 October
         Denmark                   472 metric tons,              1976, notify the Commission of the total imports of
         Ireland                   294 metric tons,              the products concerned effected up to and including
         United Kingdom          1 974 metric tons .             15 September 1976, and charged against the Com­
                                                                 munity quota and, where appropriate, the proportion
                                                                 of their initial shares that is being returned to the
3 . The second instalment of 4 000 metric tons shall             reserve .
constitute the reserve .
                          Article 3                                                       Article 6
                                                                 The Commission shall keep account of the shares
1 . If 90% or more of any Member State's initial                 opened by Member States in accordance with
share, as laid down in Article 2 (2), or 90% of that             Articles 2 and 3 and shall inform each of them of the
share less the amount returned into the reserve, where           extent to which the reserve has been used as soon as
Article 5 has been applied, has been exhausted, that             it receives the notifications .
Member State shall proceed without delay, by
notifying the Commission, to draw a second share
equal to 15% of its initial share, rounded up to the             The Commission shall, not later than 5 October
next unit where appropriate, to the extent that the              1976, notify the Member States of the amount in the
reserve is sufficient.                                           reserve after the return of shares pursuant to
                                                                 Article 5 .
2. If, after its initial share has been exhausted, 90%
of the second share drawn by a Member State has                  The Commission shall ensure that any drawing which
been used, that Member State shall proceed, in the               uses up the reserve is limited to the balance available
manner specified in paragraph 1 , to draw a third                and for this purpose shall specify the amount thereof
share equal to 7-5% of its initial share.                        to the Member State which makes the last drawing.
3 . If, after its second share has been exhausted, 90%
or more of the third share drawn by a Member State                                        Article 7
has been used, that Member State shall, in the man­
ner provided for in paragraph 1 , draw a fourth share            1 . The Member States shall take all appropriate
equal to the third.                                              measures to ensure that supplementary shares drawn
                                                                 pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that
This process shall be applied until the reserve is               changes may be made without interruption against
exhausted.                                                       their accumulative shares of the Community quota.
 ---pagebreak--- 8 . 12 . 75                       Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 317/21
2. The Member States shall ensure that importers                                     Article 8
of the said products established in their territory have
free access to the shares allocated to them or drawn         On receipt of a request from the Commission, Mem­
from the reserve .                                           ber States shall inform it of imports actually charged
                                                             against their shares.
                                                                                     Article 9
3 . The Member States shall charge imports of the
said goods against their shares as and when the goods        The   Member     States   and   the  Commission   shall
are entered for home use.                                    cooperate closely in order to ensure that this Regu­
                                                             lation is observed .
                                                                                     Article 10
4. The extent to which a Member State has used up
its share shall be determined on the basis of the            This    Regulation    shall    enter  into  force   on
imports charged in accordance with paragraph 3 .             1 Januarv 1976.
             This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
             States .
             Done at Brussels, 24 November 1975 .
                                                                                      For the Council
                                                                                       The President
                                                                                       B. VISENTINI