Commission Regulation (EC) No 273/98 of 2 February 1998 opening and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas and tariff ceilings and establishing a Community surveillance of reference quantities for certain products originating in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 273/98 of 2 February 1998 opening and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas and tariff ceilings and establishing a Community surveillance of reference quantities for certain products originating in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 77/98 of 9 January 1998 on certain procedures for applying the Cooperation Agreement between the European Community and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (1), and in particular Article 2 thereof,
Whereas the Cooperation Agreement between the European Community and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2), hereinafter referred to as 'the Agreement`, enters into force on 1 January 1998;
Whereas the Agreement stipulates that certain products originating in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia may be imported in the Community, within the limits of tariff quotas or tariff ceilings, or in the framework of reference quantities, with exemption of customs duties; whereas the tariff quotas, tariff ceilings and reference quantities laid down in the Agreement are annual and are repeated for an indeterminate period; whereas the Agreement has already fixed the level of the annual increase of the tariff ceilings volume;
Whereas the Commission should adopt the implementing measures for the opening and the administration of the Community tariff quotas; whereas particular care should be taken to ensure that all Community importers have equal and continuous access to those quotas and that the rates laid down for the quotas are applied uninterruptedly to all imports of the products in question into all Member States until the quotas are exhausted; whereas, to ensure the efficiency of a common administration of these quotas, there is no obstacle to authorising the Member States to draw from the quota volumes the necessary quantities corresponding to actual imports; whereas, however, this method of administration requires close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission and the latter must in particular be able to monitor the rate at which the quotas are used up and inform the Member States accordingly;
Whereas for products subject to Community tariff ceilings or to reference quantities, Community surveillance may be achieved by means of an administrative procedure based on charging imports of the products in question against the ceilings or reference quantities at Community level as and when products are entered with the customs authorities for free circulation;
Whereas this administrative procedure requires close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission, and the latter must in particular be able to monitor quantities charged against the tariff ceilings and inform the Member States accordingly; whereas the Commission must be able to take appropriate measures to re-establish customs duties once a tariff ceiling is reached and to determine the extent to which reference quantities are used up;
Whereas Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying down provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code (3), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 75/98 (4), has codified the management rules for tariff quotas designed to be used following the chronological order of dates of customs declarations as well as the rules for surveillance of preferential imports;
Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,