Council Regulation (EEC) No 4100/88 of 16 December 1988 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for lemons and almonds (1989)

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 4100/88 of 16 December 1988 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for lemons and almonds (1989)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 113 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Whereas, in accordance with the Agreement with the United States of America on the Mediterranean preferences, citrus and pasta, the Community undertakes, in particular, to suspend provisionally and partially the customs duties applicable to lemons and  almonds other than bitter almonds, within the limits of Community tariff quotas of appropriate volumes and of variable duration; whereas provision should be made that the Commission can, in order to be able to ensure that the reciprocal concessions  agreed upon in the Agreement are balanced, suspend by means of a Regulation the application of these tariff measures;
Whereas it is therefore proper to open for all or part of 1989 the Community tariff quotas in question;
Whereas equal and continuous access to the quotas should be ensured for all Community importers and the tariff quota rates should be applied consistently to all imports until the quotas are used up; whereas, in the light of these principles, allocation  of the tariff quotas among the Member States would seem to preserve the Community nature of the quotas; whereas, in order to correspond as closely as possible to the actual development of the market, the allocation should reflect the requirements of the  Member States based on statistics of imports from third countries during a representative reference period and to the economic outlook for the tariff year in question;
Whereas, during the last three years for which complete statistics are available, imports into each of the Member States represented the following percentages of total imports of the product in question from third countries which do not benefit from an  equivalent preferential tariff measure:
Member States Lemons Almonds 1985 1986 1987 1985 1986 1987 Benelux 53,80 54,80 43,61  7,77 11,28  7,39 Denmark  1,15  0,32  1,97  2,86  2,90  2,94 Germany  4,80  4,57  7,65 53,59 47,99 48,89 Greece  0     0,23 10,21  0     0,02  2,33 Spain  0     0     0     0     1,54  2,79 France 22,86 16,43 18,48 19,09 19,88 18,87 Ireland  0,11  0     0,28  0,05  0,07  0,04 Italy  0,
0,
0,
2,73  1,54  6,16 Portugal  0,
0,
0,01  0,
0,
0,03 United Kingdom 17,28 23,65 17,79 13,91 14,78 10,56 Whereas, for 1989, maintenance of quotas for the Member States is necessary, bearing in mind that it is impossible for the administration concerned in each Member State to introduce, in 1989, the administrative and technical basis for Community  administration of the quota; whereas it is, however, possible, bearing in mind the way in which trade has developed in recent years, to provide for a Community reserve of a significicantly large amount;
Whereas, in view of these factors and of market forecasts for these products for 1989, the initial percentage shares in the quota volume can be expressed approximately as follows:
Member States Lemons Almonds Benelux 51,39  8,86 Denmark  1,12  2,90 Germany  5,49 50,19 Greece  2,79  0,73 Spain -  1,40 France 19,73 19,30 Ireland  0,12  0,06 Italy -  3,38 Portugal -  0,01 United Kingdom 19,36 13,17 30. 12. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities Whereas to allow for possible import trends for these products the quota volumes should be divided into two parts; the first being allocated among the Member States and the second held as a reserve to cover any subsequent requirements of Member States  which have used up their initial share as well as the requirements of the Member States which do not participate in the initial allocation; whereas, to afford importers some degree of certainty, the first part of each Community tariff quota should be  set at a high level, which in this case could be 54 % of the quota volumes;
Whereas initial shares may be used up at different rates; whereas, in order to avoid disruption of supplies on this account, it should be provided that any Member State which has almost used up its initial share should draw an additional share from the  correspondimg reserve; whereas each time its additional share is almost up a Member State should draw a further share and so on as many times as each of the reserves allows; whereas the initial and additional shares should be valid until the end of the  quota period; whereas this form of administration requires close collaboration between the Member States and the Commission and the Commission must be able to keep account of quota utilization rates and inform the Member States accordingly;
Whereas if at a given date in the quota period a considerable quantity of a Member State's initial share remains unused, it is essential that such State should return a significant proportion of this to the corresponding reserve in order to prevent part of the Community tariff quotas from remaining unused in one Member State while it could be used in others;
Whereas if, during the quota period, the Community reserve is almost totally used up, it is essential that Member States return to the said reserve the whole of the unused proportion of their initial quota and of any drawings made, in order to avoid one  part of the Community tariff quotas remaining unused in one Member State when it could be used in others;
Whereas since the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented by the Benelux Economic Union, any measure concerning the administration of the shares allocated to that  economic union may be carried out by any one of its members,