Council Regulation (EEC) No 1929/92 of 10 July 1992 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for rum, tafia and arrack originating in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States (1992 to 1993)

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 1929/92  of 10 July 1992  opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for rum, tafia and arrack originating in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States (1992 to 1993)
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 Fourth ACP-EEC Convention entered into force on 1 September 1991 (1);
Whereas Protocol 6 to that Convention provides that products originating in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States which fall within CN codes 2208 40 10, 2208 40 90, 2208 90 11 and 2208 90 19 shall, until the entry into force of a common  organization of the market in spirits, be allowed into the Community free of customs duties under conditions such as to permit the development of traditional trade flows between the ACP States and the Community and between the Member States; whereas the  Community shall until 31 December 1993 fix each year the quantities which may be imported free of customs duties on the basis of the largest quantities imported annually from the ACP States into the Community in the past three years for which statistics  are available, increased, until 31 December 1992, by an annual growth rate of 37 % on the market of the United Kingdom and 27 % on the other markets of the Community;
Whereas, by virtue of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1820/87 of 25 June 1987 concerning the application of Decision No 2/87 of the ACP-EEC Council of Ministers on the advance implementation of the Protocol to the Third ACP-EEC Convention consequent on the  Accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic to the European Communities (2), provision is made for special arrangements for the quota duties to be applied by those two Member States until 31 December 1992;
Whereas those two Member States will apply the quota duty indicated in Article 1 as from 1 January 1993; whereas, by reason of the characteristics peculiar to the market in rum, the quota period ranges from 1 July to 30 June;
Whereas, having regard to the levels reached by imports of the products concerned into the Community during the past three years for which statistics are available, the annual quota volume for the period from 1 July 1992 to 30 June 1993 must be fixed at  214 268 hectolitres of pure alcohol;
Whereas although this volume is calculated on the basis of the reference year 1991, that is, for an amount of 184 402 hectolitres of pure alcohol, it is appropriate for reasons inherent in the rum market to take only the second six months of 1991 as a  basis for calculating the specific growth rates applicable until 31 December 1992, namely, 104 111 hectolitres of pure alcohol, 17 562 hectolitres of which were imported by the United Kingdom and 86 549 hectolitres by the other Member States; whereas  the quota volume for the second six months of 1992 must accordingly be fixed at 133 977 hectolitres of pure alcohol;
Whereas the quota volume calculated for the first six months of 1993 should not be increased but should be fixed at the same amount as applied in the last corresponding quota period for which statistics are available, that is the first six months of  1991, for which the amount is 80 291 hectolitres of pure alcohol;
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure to all Community importers equal and uninterrupted access to the abovementioned quota and uninterrupted application of the rate laid down for that quota to all imports of the products concerned into all  Member States until the quota has been used up;
Whereas, following the case-law of the Court of Justice, it is unlawful to allocate the Community quotas between the Member States, unless overriding circumstances of an administrative, technical or economic nature prevent acting otherwise; whereas, in  addition, in cases where it is decided to allocate quotas, a mechanism should be set up whereby the integrity of the Common Customs Tariff may be protected;
Whereas the economic difficulties which could result for the French overseas departments (FOD) from the sudden change in the arrangements for importing rum from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States constitute circumstances having a binding  effect which justify the temporary and partial maintenance of these arrangements; whereas, however, the arrangements for allocation of the quota into national shares should be phased out, being justified only on a transitional basis, and whereas they  should in any event definitively disappear as from 1 January 1993;
Whereas, in these circumstances, it is advisable to increase to 80 % the volume of the Community reserve by means of a system for the automatic transfer of Member State share to the reserve as soon as 80 % of the latter has been used up; whereas any  quantities allocated to Member States from the quota volume which have not been used up by 1 January 1993 should also be returned to the reserve;
Whereas, during the past three years for which statistical data are available, imports from Member States have been as follows:
(in hectolitres of pure alcohol)
Member State  1989  1990  1991       Benelux  7 621  9 339  13 229  Denmark  1 748  2 404  1 602  Germany  48 591  50 451  62 242  Greece  586  5 699  6 014  Spain  156  9 514  22 916  France  19  -  -  Ireland  2 973  2 282  2 783  Italy   431  54  9 947  Portugal  -  -  124  United Kingdom  83 773  70 436  65 545       Total  145 898  150 179  184 402
Whereas, in view of these factors, of market forecasts for the products in question and of the estimates submitted by certain  Member States, quota shares may be fixed approximately at the following percentages:
Benelux 6,30
Denmark 1,20
Germany 33,56
Greece 2,55
Spain 6,80
France -
Ireland 1,68
Italy 2,18
Portugal -
United Kingdom 45,73;
Whereas provision should be made for a mechanism to prevent, when the Community quota is not exhausted, goods from being imported into a Member State which has exhausted its share only after the full application of customs duties, or after having been  diverted to another Member State which has not yet exhausted its share; whereas, in these circumstances, if, during the period from 1 July to 31 December 1992, 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 measures should be laid down to ensure that Protocol 6 is implemented under conditions such as to permit the development of traditional trade flows between the ACP States and the Community, on the one hand, and between the Member States on the  other;
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 quotas may be carried out  by any one of its members,