Council Regulation (EC) No 1031/2002 of 13 June 2002 establishing additional customs duties on imports of certain products originating in the United States of America

Council Regulation (EC) No 1031/2002
of 13 June 2002
establishing additional customs duties on imports of certain products originating in the United States of America
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) The United States of America has imposed a safeguard measure in the form of tariff increases or tariff quotas on imports of steel products from, inter alia, the European Community as from 20 March 2002.
(2) This measure is causing considerable injury to the Community producers concerned and disturbs the balance of concessions and obligations resulting from the WTO Agreement; the measure will significantly limit Community exports of the steel products concerned to the United States of America, affecting Community exports worth at least EUR 2407 million per year.
(3) The consultations which were held between the United States of America and the Community as envisaged in the WTO Agreement did not reach any satisfactory solution.
(4) The WTO Agreement gives any affected exporting Member the right to suspend the application of substantially equivalent concessions or other obligations, provided the WTO Council for Trade in Goods does not disapprove.
(5) The imposition of additional customs duties of 100 %, 30 %, 15 %, 13 % and 8 % on selected products originating in the United States of America imported each year into the Community represents the suspension of a substantially equivalent trade concession, in that the duties collected will not exceed the amount of duties to be collected on Community exports of the products covered by the United States of America safeguard measure, namely EUR 626 million per year.
(6) The suspension of substantially equivalent concessions should be applied by priority with respect to the steel sector, and to other sectors where appropriate. In particular, the manufactured products originating in the United States of America which have been selected are those on which the Community is not substantially dependent for its supply, but on which the imposition of additional customs duties will have an impact substantially equivalent to the impact on Community exports of the safeguard measure imposed by the United States of America.
(7) For some products designated as "certain flat steel products" the safeguard measure adopted by the United States of America has not been taken as a result of an absolute increase in imports.
(8) As allowed by the WTO Agreement, a part of the Community's concessions corresponding to the safeguard measure that was not taken as a result of an absolute increase of imports and representing an amount of applicable duties of EUR 379 million may be subject to additional duties as from 18 June 2002.
(9) However, the primary objective of the Community in the short term remains to reach an agreement with the United States of America on both compensation and product exclusions from the safeguard action. The Council shall therefore decide on the application of additional duties in the light of decisions by the United States of America on economically meaningful product exclusions and on the presentation of an acceptable offer on trade compensation.
(10) This Regulation is without prejudice to the question of the compatibility of the safeguard measure applied by the United States of America with the WTO Agreement. In any event, the additional duty should apply in full from 20 March 2005 until the safeguard measure imposed by the United States of America is lifted. It should however apply immediately after a decision by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body that the safeguard measure imposed by the United States of America is incompatible with the WTO Agreement.
(11) Products for which an import licence with an exemption from, or a reduction of, duty was issued prior to the date of entry into force of this Regulation should not be subject to these additional customs duties.
(12) Products for which it can be proved that they have been exported from the United States of America to the Community prior to the date of application of the additional customs duties should not be subject to these additional customs duties.
(13) Products affected by the suspension of concessions should be placed under the customs procedure "processing under customs control" only pursuant to an examination in the Committee of the Customs Code.
(14) The Community provided the Council for Trade in Goods with written notice of the suspension on 14 May 2002. The Council for Trade in Goods has not disagreed with such suspension,