Council Regulation (EEC) No 3454/85 of 5 December 1985 opening, allocating and administering a Community tariff quota for certain grades of ferro-chromium falling within subheading ex 73.02 E I of the Common Customs Tariff

COUNCIL  REGULATION (EEC) No 3454/85
of 5 December 1985
opening, allocating and administering a Community tariff quota for certain grades of ferro-chromium falling within subheading ex 73.02 E I of the Common Customs Tariff
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 28 thereof,
Having regard to the draft Regulation submitted by the Commission,
Whereas, for certain grades of ferro-chromium containing not less than 4 % by weight of carbon, or not less than 6 % by weight of carbon, production is, to a variable degree, inadequate in the Community and producers are unable to meet the total requirements of consumer industries; whereas it is therefore in the Community's interest to suspend totally in respect of this metal the application of the Common Customs Tariff duty for a period running up to 31 December 1986 within a suitable tariff quota; whereas, in order to avoid disturbing the equilibrium of the market for this ferro-alloy and to ensure parallel development in sales of Community production and in supplies to meet the requirements of consumer industries, it is appropriate to fix the quota volume at the provisional level of 217 000 tonnes covering immediate import needs from third countries; whereas for the same reasons a distinction should be made between certain grades of ferro-chromium and the abovementioned quota volume should be allocated between them; whereas, moreover, Member States should be free only to authorize amounts to be charged against this volume subject to certain conditions relating to destination; whereas, in addition, provision should be made for the participation of Spain and Portugal from 1 March 1986;
Whereas equal and continuous access to these quotas should be guaranteed for all Community importers and the rate of duty for these tariff quotas should be applied consistently to all imports until the quotas are exhausted; whereas, in the light of these principles, arrangements for the utilization of the Community tariff quotas based on an allocation among Member States would seem to comply with the Community nature of the quotas; whereas, to correspond as closely as possible to the actual trend in the market in the products in question, such allocation should be in proportion to the requirements of the Member States as calculated by reference to statistics of imports from third countries during a representative reference period and to the economic outlook for the quota period in question;
Whereas, however, since the quotas are autonomous Community tariff quotas intended to cover import needs arising in the Community, the quota volumes may, as an experiment, be allocated on the basis of the temporary import needs from third countries estimated for each of the Member States; whereas this system of allocation also ensures the uniform application of the Common Customs Tariff;
Whereas, to take account of future import trends for the products concerned, the quota volumes should be divided into two instalments, the first being allocated among the Member States and the second held as a reserve to cover subsequently the requirements of Member States which have exhausted their initial shares; whereas, to give importers of the Member States some degree of certainty, the first instalment of each Community tariff quota should be fixed at a relatively high level which could be at more than 90 % of the quota volumes;
Whereas Member States may exhaust their initial shares at different rates; whereas, to avoid disruption of supplies on this account, provision should be made that any Member State which has almost used up its initial share should draw an additional share from the corresponding reserve; whereas each time its additional share is almost exhausted a Member State should draw a further share, and so on as many times as each 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 monitor the extent to which the quota volumes 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 one of a Member State's initial shares remains unused, it is essential that such a State should return a significant proportion thereof to the corresponding reserve, in order to prevent a part of one of the Community quotas 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,