Council Regulation (EEC) No 4222/88 of 19 December 1988 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for certain wine of designated origin, originating in Algeria (1989)

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 4222/88 of 19 December 1988 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for certain wine of designated origin, originating in Algeria (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 Article 20 of the Cooperation Agreement between the European Economic Community and the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (1) as amended by the Additional Protocol to that Agreement (2) provides that certain wine of designated origin  falling within CN codes ex 2204 21 25, ex 2204 21 29, ex 2204 21 35 or ex 2204 21 39 originating in Algeria shall be exempt from customs duties on import into the Community within the limits of a Community tariff quota of 200 000 hectolitres; whereas  the wine must be put up in containers holding two litres or less; whereas the wine must be accompanied either by a certificate of designation of origin in accordance with the model given in Annex D to the Agreement or, by way of derogation, by a  document VI 1 or a VI 2 extract annotated in compliance with Article 9 of Regulation (EEC) No 3590/85 (3);
Whereas, however, Council Regulation (EEC) No 2573/87 of 11 August 1987 laying down the arrangements for trade between Spain and Portugal on the one hand and Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Turkey on the other (4) provides for the  Portuguese Republic to defer until 31 December 1990 the application of the preferential arrangements for the products in question; whereas, consequently this Regulation does not apply to Portugal; whereas the Community tariff quota in question should be  opened for 1989;
Whereas the wine in question is subject to compliance with the free-at-frontier reference price; whereas, in order that such wine may benefit from this tariff quota, Article 54 of Regulation (EEC) No 822/87 (5) as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No  2964/88 (6) must be complied with;
Whereas equal and continuous access to the quota should be ensured for all Community importers and the rate laid down for the quota should be applied consistently to all imports of the products in question into the Member States until the quota is  exhausted;
Whereas, for the period of application of this Regulation, it appears necessary to maintain an allocation between the Member States of the quotas concerned, since the administrations of the Member States are unable to provide by 1 January 1989, for the  administrative and technical conditions required for the Community management of quotas for these products originating in Algeria; whereas it does, however, seem advisable to provide for a further increase in the Community reserve;
Whereas provision should be made for a mechanism to prevent, when the Community quota is not used up, goods from being imported into a Member State which has used up its share only after the full application of customs duties, or after having been  diverted to another Member State whose share has not yet been used up; whereas, under these circumstances, if, during the quota period, the Community reserve were to be almost entirely used up, Member States should return to the said reserve all of the  unused portion of their initial shares so as to avoid part of the Community tariff quota from remaining unused in one Member State, when it could be used in others;
Whereas, taking into account the traditional trends in trade, the allocation maintained between Member States must, so as to reflect as closely as possible the actual market trend of the products in question, be carried out pro rata the needs of the  Member States, calculated, on the one hand, on the basis of the statistical data relating to imports of the said products from Algeria over a representative reference period and, on the other hand, on the basis of the economic outlook for the quota  periods considered;
Whereas in this case, however, neither Community nor national statistics showing the breakdown for each type of wine in question are available and no reliable forecasts of future imports can be made; whereas in these circumstances the quota volumes  should be allocated in initial shares, account being taken ot the effective utilization of these wines on the markets of the various Member States;
Whereas, to allow for the trend of imports of the products concerned in the various Member States, the quota volume 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 and any additional requirements which might arise in the other Member States; whereas, to afford importers in each Member State some degree of certainty, the first part of  the tariff quota should be set at a certain level, which in this case could be 40 % of the quota volume;
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 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 operation concerning the administration of the quota shares allocated to that economic union may be carried out by any one of its members,