Council Regulation (EEC) No 3464/84 of 10 December 1984 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis) falling within subheading ex 03.01 B I t) of the Common Customs Tariff (1985)

COUNCIL  REGULATION (EEC) No 3464/84
of 10 December 1984
opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis) falling within subheading ex 03.01 B I t) of the Common Customs Tariff (1985)
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 the Community has undertaken to open an annual Community tariff quota at 8 % duty for 2 000 tonnes of silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis) falling within subheading ex 03.01 B I t) of the Common Customs Tariff; whereas the tariff quota concerned should be opened on 1 January 1985 and allocated between the Member States;
Whereas, under Article 64 of the Act of Accession of 1979, Greece is required to apply in full the Common Customs Tariff duty in respect of the product in question since 1 January 1981; whereas, therefore, it is necessary to cover, in favour of the tariff quotas in question, the requirements of that Member State during the quota period;
Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota should be ensured for all Community importers and the rate of levy for the tariff quota should be applied consistently to all imports until the quota is used up; whereas, in the light of the principles outlined above, a Community tariff arrangement based on an allocation between the Member States would seem to preserve the Community nature of the quota; whereas, to represent as closely as possible the actual development of the market in the said goods, the allocation should follow proportionately the requirements of the Member States calculated both from statistics of imports from third countries during a representative reference period and according to the economic outlook for the tariff year in question;
Whereas, since the fish concerned are not separately specified in the statistical nomenclatures of the Member States, the available import figures provided by them cannot be regarded as sufficiently exact or representative for use as a basis for the allocation referred to above; whereas the incomplete figures available together with the estimates made by the Member States allow the following percentage estimates to be made as to the import needs of each of them from third countries for the quota period envisaged:
Benelux 0,77
Denmark 23,28
Germany 42,20
Greece 0,01
France 14,81
Ireland 0,38
Italy 0,69
United Kingdom 17,86
Whereas, to take account of the possible import trends for these fish, the quota volume should be divided into two instalments, the first being allocated between 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; whereas, to give importers some degree of certainty, the first instalment of the tariff quota should be fixed at a high level, which in this case could be 65,5 % of the amount of the quota;
Whereas initial shares may be used up at different rates; whereas, 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 reserve; whereas each time its additional share is almost used up a Member State should draw a further share and so on as many times as the reserve 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 in a position to keep account of the extent to which the quotas have been used up and to 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 thereof to the reserve, in order to prevent a part of the Community tariff quota from remaining unused in one Member State while 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,