Council Regulation (EC) No 7/2000 of 21 December 1999 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 517/94 on common rules for imports of textile products from certain third countries not covered by bilateral agreements, protocols or other arrangements, or by other specific Community import rules

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 7/2000
of 21 December 1999
amending Council Regulation (EC) No 517/94 on common rules for imports of textile products from certain third countries not covered by bilateral agreements, protocols or other arrangements, or by other specific Community import rules
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 133 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Whereas:
(1) Regulation (EC) No 517/94(1), and in particular its Annexes IIIB and VI, establishes the annual quantitative limits for certain products originating in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia;
(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2000 of 17 December 1999 concerning the arrangements applicable to imports into the Community of products originating in the Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia and to imports of wine originating in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Slovenia(2) introduces the splitting of the existing global concessions into country specific ones for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia;
(3) It is appropriate to also follow this approach for textiles products, and thus to split the existing common quantitative restrictions into country specific ones for Bosnia-Herzegovina (30 %) and Croatia (70 %) according to the trade patterns and actual utilisation of quantitative limits for the last three years (1996-1998), and therefore to amend Annexes IIIB and VI to Regulation (EC) No 517/94;
(4) The General Affairs Council of 13 September 1999 invited the Commission to examine possible improvements to the current measures;
(5) It is therefore appropriate to increase the quota levels for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, taking as a basis the quota growth rate per category which was foreseen in a Supplementary Protocol to the Cooperation Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on trade in textile products, concluded by Decision 90/649/EEC(3);
(6) It is appropriate to allow, in certain cases, import authorisations to be issued by electronic means;
(7) The quota levels for Category 6 for the year 1999 for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia should be increased in order to absorb certain pending import requests,