CELEX: 31974R0166
Language: en
Date: 1974-01-21 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 166/74 of the Council of 21 January 1974 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for unmanufactured tobacco of the type 'flue-cured Virginia' originating in developing countries

No L 20/4                          Official Journal of the European Communities                               24. 1 . 74
                              REGULATION (EEC) No 166/74 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                 of 21 January 1974
                opening , allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff
                quota for unmanufactured tobacco of the type 'flue-cured Virginia' originating
                                              in developing countries
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                  Whereas the offer made by the Community includes a
COMMUNITIES,                                                  clause stating that the Community drew up the offer
                                                              on the assumption that all the main industrialized
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European         countries which are members of the OECD would
Economic Community ;                                          participate in granting preferences and would make
                                                              similar efforts in this direction ; whereas, moreover, it
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;           is  evident   from   the  conclusions   worked    out    in
                                                              UNCTAD that this offer, while being of a temporary
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parlia­          nature, does not constitute a binding commitment
ment ;                                                        and, in particular, may be withdrawn wholly or in part
                                                              at a later date ; whereas this possibility may be
Whereas in the Joint Declaration of Intent ( !) on the        adopted, inter alia, with a view to remedying any
development of trade relations with Sri Lanka, India,         unfavourable situations which might arise in the
Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore, the Community               associated countries following the implementation of
declared    its   readiness  to seek  solutions  to  the
                                                              the generalized preference scheme ;
problems which may arise in the field of trade with
the countries referred to ;
                                                              Whereas tariff preferences have been applied as from
Whereas in respect of several Asian countries of the          the second half of 1971 and whereas these preferences
Commonwealth and particularly as regards India, the           should continue to be applied throughout 1974 ;
type of unmanufactured tobacco concerned is an
important export product and the flow of trade in             Whereas it is expedient, therefore, that the Commu­
such products is likely to be changed as a result of the      nity should open for 1974, for raw or unmanufactured
enlargement of the Community ; whereas the system             tobacco of the 'flue-cured Virginia' type, originating in
of generalized tariff preferences may constitute a solu­      the countries and territories listed in the Annex, a
tion to the problems of this nature and whereas this          Community tariff quota limited to 30 million units of
type of unmanufactured tobacco should be included             account, at a customs duty rate of 11-5 % with a
for a transitional period of one year in the system of        minimum charge of 14 units of account and a
generalized preferences ;                                     maximum charge of 16-5 units of account per 100
                                                              kilogrammes net weight ; whereas, moreover, the provi­
Whereas, within the context of UNCTAD, the Euro­              sions of Protocol No 1 0 of the Agreement establishing
pean Economic Community offered to grant tariff               an association between the EEC and Greece should be
preferences on certain processed agricultural products        respected ;
of Chapters 1 to 24 of the Common Customs Tariff
which originate in developing countries ; whereas the
                                                              Whereas, in accordance with Protocol No 23 to the
preferential treatment proposed in that offer consists,
in respect of certain goods which are subject to the          Act of Accession (2), the generalized tariff preference
trade arrangements laid down in Regulation (EEC) No           scheme will be fully applicable in the new Member
 1059/69, of a reduction in the fixed component of the        States from 1 January 1974 ;
charge applicable to such goods by virtue of that Regu­
lation, and, in respect of products which are subject to      Whereas, for the product concerned, this scheme
the single customs duty, of a reduction in such duty ;        would , however, involve the application in the new
whereas preferential imports of the products                  Member States in 1974 of customs duties higher than
concerned could be effected without quantitative              or very close to those which will be applied by the
restrictions ; whereas it appears appropriate, however,        new Member States       to  non-member      countries   in
in view of the sensitiveness of the tobacco sector            general on the basis of the provisions of the above­
generally and of the need to safeguard the interests of        mentioned Act ; whereas this situation would comply
the associated countries in this field, to lay down for        neither with the spirit nor with the very nature of the
raw or unmanufactured tobacco of the 'flue-cured              generalized preference scheme ; whereas, in order to
Virginia' type special conditions consisting in a reduc­       maintain an equivalent preferential margin for these
tion of the customs duty applicable to that product            products also, reduced customs duties should be
within the limits of a Community tariff quota ;                applied to them, in accordance with detailed rules
(•) OJ No L 73, 27. 3 . 1972, p. 195.                         (2) OJ No L 73, 27. 3. 1972, p. 178 .
 ---pagebreak--- 24. 1 . 74                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 20 / 5
based on the principle of maintaining, in the new            Whereas the percentage for the shares of the Member
Member States, a preference proportional to that              States in the Community tariff quota, in view of its
which     exists between  the duties of the     Common       duration and its amount, does not appear in this
Customs Tariff and the duties given in Article 1 of           instance to compromise the equal access for Commu­
this Regulation ; whereas, with a view to granting the        nity importers to Community tariff quotas ; whereas
beneficiary developing countries the best possible            for this same reason it would appear expedient to
treatment, in accordance with the objectives of the          allow each Member State to choose the system for
preference scheme, the duties given in the abovemen­         administering its share ;
tioned Article 1 should also be applied wherever the
duties calculated according to the abovementioned            Whereas , moreover, in order to take account of the
detailed rules prove to be higher than them ;                provisions of the Association Agreement with Greece,
                                                             it is necessary that the Community should be in a
Whereas the benefit of this tariff quota should be           position to resume levying of the normal duties as
reserved for products originating in the countries and       soon as a total quantity of 22 000 metric tons of the
territories under consideration ; whereas , to this end ,    abovespecified product has been charged against the
the provisions concerning the definition of the              said quota ;
concept of 'originating products' should be applied in
respect of the implementation of the tariff preferences      Whereas since the Kingdom of Belgium, the
granted by the Community to the products from the            Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of
developing countries, for the period from 1 January to        Luxembourg are united in and represented by the
31 December 1974 ;                                           Benelux Economic Union , all transactions concerning
                                                             the administration of the share allocated to the Bene­
Whereas it is necessary to ensure equal and contin­          lux Economic Union may be carried out by any one
uous access for all Community importers to the above­        of its Members,
mentioned quota and the uninterrupted application of
the rate laid down for this quota to all imports of the
products concerned into all Member States until this         HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
quota is used up ; whereas, having regard to the princi­
ples set out above, the Community nature of the                                       Article 1
quota can be respected by allocating the Community
tariff quota among Member States ; whereas, moreover,         1.    From 1 January to 31 December 1974 a Commu­
to this end and in the context of the utilization            nity tariff quota of 30 million units of account shall
system , the actual charges against the quota may relate     be opened in the Community for the imports of raw
only to products which have been entered for home            or unmanufactured tobacco of the 'flue-cured Virginia'
use and which are accompanied by a certificate of            type falling under subheading 24.01 B of the
origin ;                                                     Common Customs Tariff. Within this tariff quota the
                                                             customs duty shall be suspended at 11-5% with a
Whereas , on the basis of the available statistical data
                                                             minimum charge of 14 units of account and a
which cover only a relatively brief period and whereas       maximum charge of 16-5 units of account per 100
they should be weighted on the basis of the estimates        kilogrammes net weight .
which may be made in respect of the quota year, the
percentages for the shares in the quota amount may           Entry to this tariff quota shall be subject to the produc­
be set out as follows :                                      tion of a certificate of authenticity appearing in the
                                                             certificate of origin and made out in such a manner as
         Germany                            7   %
                                                             shall be determined by the Commission .
         Benelux                            5-6 %
         France                             2-8 %            If, however, during the period running from 1 January
         Italy                              0-2 %            to 31 October 1974, the total quantity expressed in
         Denmark                            2-6 %            metric tons charged against the Community tariff
         Ireland                            1-8 %            quota mentioned in the first subparagraph should
         United Kingdom                    80   %            reach 22 000 metric tons the aforesaid suspension of
                                                             duty shall cease .
Whereas, without affecting the Community nature of
the tariff quota under consideration , it appears            On importation into Denmark, Ireland and the
possible to provide temporarily for a utilization            United Kingdom, there shall be applied the customs
scheme based on a single allocation among the                duties determined by multiplying, by a coefficient
Member States ; whereas, moreover, the allocation set        equal to the margin of preferences existing between
out by this Regulation in no way prejudices the possi­       the duty given in the first subparagraph and the
bility of adopting the general method of allocation of       Common Customs Tariff duties applicable, the duties
Community tariff quotas comprising the setting up of         obtained by reducing by 40 % the difference between
a reserve share ; whereas at this transitional stage it      the lowest duty applied on 1 January 1972 to the deve­
appears feasible that such allocation could be made          loping countries set out in the Annex and the
according to the percentages set out above ;                 Common Customs Tariff .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 20 / 6                          Official Journal of the European Communities                              24. 1 . 74
However, the duties given in the first subparagraph            entered for home use, on the basis of the customs
shall be applied where the duties resulting from the           value of the said goods, and which are accompanied
abovementioned calculation are higher than them.               by a certificate of origin in accordance with the rules
                                                               referred to in Article 1 (2). For the purposes of
2. These tariff quotas shall apply solely to products          applying Article 1 ( 1 ), subparagraph 3, the extent to
originating in the countries and territories listed in         which the shares have been filled shall also be deter­
the Annex. However, those imports which enjoy                  mined in tonnage.
exemption from customs duties under other preferen­
tial tariff arrangements granted by the Community              3 . Goods may qualify for a tariff quota only if the
may not be charged against these tariff quotas .               certificate of origin referred to in paragraph 2 is
                                                               submitted before the date on which the levying of
For the purposes of implementing this Regulation the           duties is reintroduced .
concept of originating products shall be that laid
down by the provisions of Commission Regulation
                                                                                         Article 4
(EEC) No 3614/73 (') of 20 December 1973 applicable
to the products benefiting from tariff preferences             Member     States   shall  inform   the  Commission      at
granted by the Community to the developing coun­               monthly intervals of imports of the said goods actually
tries for the period from 1 January to 31 December             charged against their shares. This information shall
 1974 .
                                                               show both the value expressed in units of account and
                                                               the quantity expressed in metric tons.
                         Article 2
                                                               Once a quantity of 22 000 metric tons is reached at
The Community tariff quota mentioned in Article 1              Community level for the specified goods, originating
shall be allocated in shares which , for each Member            in the countries and territories listed in the Annex,
State, shall be of the amount indicated below.                 and has been charged against the Community tariff
Germany                        2 100 000  units of account     quota in the manner laid down in Article 1 ( 1 ), sub­
Benelux                        1 680 000  units of account      paragraph 3 and in Article 2 (2), the Commission shall
France                            840 000 units of account     without delay notify the Member States of the date on
Italy                              60 000 units of account     which , as a result of this fact, the levying of the
                                                                normal tariff duties is to be reintroduced . Such notifi­
Denmark                           780 000 units of account
Ireland                           540 000 units of account     cation shall be published in the Official Journal of
United Kingdom               24 000 000   units of account.     the European Communities.
                                                                                         Article 3
                         Article 3
 1.     The Member States shall ensure free access to          Member States and the Commission shall cooperate
the share which has been allocated to them for impor­          closely to ensure that the above Articles are observed.
ters of the products concerned who are established on
their territory.                                                                         Article 6
2.      The extent to which the shares of Member States        This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its
have been actually filled shall be determined on the            publication in the Official Journal of the European
basis of imports of the said goods which have been              Communities.
               This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
               States .
               Done at Brussels, 21 January 1974.
                                                                           For the Council
                                                                             The President
                                                                                J. ERTL
(!) OJ No L 358 , 28 . 12. 1973 .
 ---pagebreak--- 24. 1 . 74                        Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 20/7
                                                         ANNEX
                   List of developing countries and territorities enjoying generalized tariff preferences
                                             INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES
           Afghanistan                            India                             Qatar
           Algeria                                Indonesia
           Argentina                              Iran                              Rwanda
                                                  Iraq
           Bahamas                                Ivory Coast                       Saudi Arabia
           Bahrain                                                                  Senegal
           Bangladesh                             Jamaica                           Sierra Leone
           Barbados                               Jordan                            Singapore
           Bhutan                                                                   Somalia
           Bolivia                                                                  Sri Lanka
                                                  Kenya
           Botswana                                                                 Sudan
           Brazil
                                                  Khmer Republic
                                                                                    Swaziland
                                                  Korea (South )
           Burma                                                                    Syria
                                                  Kuwait
           Burundi
                                                                                    Tanzania
                                                   Laos
           Cameroon                                                                 Thailand
                                                  Lebanon
           Central African Republic                                                 Togo
                                                  Lesotho
           Chad                                                                     Tonga
                                                   Liberia                          Trinidad and Tobago
           Chile
           Colombia                                Libya                            Tunisia
           Congo, People's Republic of
           Costa Rica                              Malagasy Republic                Uganda
           Cuba                                    Malawi                           United Arab Emirates :
           Cyprus                                  Malaysia                            Abu Dhabi
                                                   Maldive Islands                     Dubai
           Dahomey                                Mali                                 Ras al Khaimah
           Dominican Republic                      Mauritania                          Fujairah
                                                   Mauritius                           Ajman
           Ecuador                                 Mexico                              Sharjah
           Egypt, Arab Republic of                 Morocco                             Umm al Qaiwain
           El Salvador                                                              Upper Volta
           Equatorial Guinea                       Nauru
                                                                                    Uruguay
           Ethiopia
                                                   Nepal                            Venezuela
                                                   Nicaragua
           Fiji                                                                     Vietnam ( Republic of)
                                                   Niger
           Gabon
                                                   Nigeria                          Western Samoa
           Gambia
                                                   Oman
           Ghana                                                                    Yemen, People's Demo­
           Guatemala                                                                cratic Republic of
           Guinea                                  Pakistan                         Yemen Arab Republic
           Guyana                                  Panama                           Yugoslavia
                                                   Paraguay
           Haiti                                   Peru                             Zaire
           Honduras                                Philippines                      Zambia
 ---pagebreak--- No L 20/ 8                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                                             24 . 1 . 74
                                                            Countries and territories
           dependent or administered, or for whose external relations Member States of the Commu­
                                     nity or third countries are wholly or partly responsible
           Afars and Issas (Territory of the)
           Angola (including Cabinda)
           Australian Antarctic Territory
           Belize
           Bermuda
           British Antarctic Territory
           British Indian Ocean Territory (Aldabra, Farquhar, Chagos Archipelago,
           Des Roches)
           British Pacific Ocean (')
           Brunei
           Cape Verde Islands
           Cayman Islands and Dependencies
           Christmas Island
           Cocos (Keeling) Islands
           Comoro Archipelago
           Corn Islands and Swan Islands
           Falkland Islands and Dependencies
           French Polynesia
           French Southern and Antarctic Territories
           Gibraltar
           Heard Island and MacDonald Islands
           Hong Kong
           Leeward Islands (2 )
           Macao
           Mozambique
           Netherlands Antilles
           New Caledonia and Dependencies
           Norfolk Islands
           Pacific Islands administered by the United States of America or under United States trusteeship (3)
           Papua-New Guinea
           Portuguese Guinea
           Portuguese Timor
           St Helena (including Ascension, Gough Island, and Tristan da Cunha)
           Saint Pierre and Miquelon
           Sao Tome and Principe
           Seychelles (including Amirantes)
           Sikkim
           Spanish territories in Africa
           Surinam
           Territories for which New Zealand is responsible (Cook Islands, Niuwe Island, Tokelau Islands and
           Ross Dependency)
           Turks and Caocos Islands
           Virgin Islands of the United States (St Croix, St Thomas, St John, etc).
           Wallis and Futuna Islands
           Windward Islands (4 )
            Note : The above lists may be amended subsequently to take account of changes in the international
                      status of countries or territories .
           (') Gilbert and Ellice Islands, British Solomon Islands, New Hebrides Condominium , and Pitcairn Islands.
           (: ) Antigua, Montserrat, St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, British Virgin Islands.
           (J) The Pacific Islands administered by the United States of America include : Guam , American Samoa (including Swain's Island),
                Midway Islands, Johnston and Sand Islands, Wake Island and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (the Caroline, Marianas and
                Marshall Islands).
           (4) Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia , St Vincent .