Council Regulation (EEC) No 2730/85 of 27 September 1985 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for certain wines having a registered designation of origin, falling within subheading ex 22.05 C of the common customs tariff and originating in Tunisia (1985/86 )

COUNCIL  REGULATION (EEC) No 2730/85
of 27 September 1985
opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for certain wines having a registered designation of origin, falling within subheading ex 22.05 C of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Tunisia (1985/86)
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 Republic of Tunisia (1) stipulates that certain wines having a registered designation of origin, falling within subheading ex 22.05 C of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Tunisia, specified in the Agreement in the form of an exchange of letters of 16 October 1978 (2), and produced from the 1977 and subsequent harvests, shall be imported into the Community free of customs duties within the limits of an annual Community tariff quota of 50 000 hectolitres; whereas these wines must be put in containers holding two litres or less; whereas these wines must be accompanied by a certificate of designation of origin in accordance with the model given in Annex D to the Agreement in question; whereas the Community tariff quota in question should therefore be opened for the period 1 November 1985 to 31 October 1986;
Whereas the wines in question are subject to compliance with the free-at-frontier reference price; whereas the wines in question shall benefit from this tariff quota on condition that Article 18 of Regulation (EEC) No 337/79 (3), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 2342/84 (4), is complied with;
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure equal and uninterrupted access for all Community importers to the abovementioned quota, and uninterrupted application of the rates laid down for this quota to all imports of the products concerned into the Member States until the quota has been used up; whereas a system of using a Community tariff quota, based on allocation among the Member States, appears likely to comply with the Community nature of the said quota having regard to the above principles; whereas, in order to reflect most accurately the actual development of the market in the products in question, such allocation should be in proportion to the requirements of the Member States, assessed by reference both to the statistics relating to imports of the said products from Tunisia over a representative reference period and to the economic outlook for the quota period concerned;
Whereas in this case, however, neither Community nor national statistics showing the breakdown for each of the types of wines in question are available and no reliable estimates of future imports can be made; whereas in these circumstances the quota volumes should be allocated in initial shares, taking into account demand for these wines on the markets of the various Member States;
Whereas, to take into account import trends for the products concerned in the various Member States, the quota amount should be divided into two instalments, the first being allocated among the Member States and the second held as a reserve intended to cover at a later date the requirements of Member States who have used up their initial share; whereas, in order to guarantee some degree of security to importers in each Member State, the first instalment of the Community quota should be fixed at a level which could, in the present circumstances, be 50 % of the quota volume;
Whereas the initial shares of the Member States may not be used up at the same rate; whereas, in order to take this into account and avoid disruption, any Member State which has used up almost all its initial share should draw a supplementary share from the reserve; whereas this should be done by each Member State each time one of its supplementary shares is almost used up, and so on as many times as the reserve allows; whereas the initial and supplementary 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 follow the extent to which the quota volume has been used up and inform the Member States thereof;
Whereas, if at a given date in the quota period a Member State has a considerable quantity of the initial share left over, it is essential that it should return a significant proportion thereof to the reserve, to prevent a part of the Community quota remaining unused in one Member State when 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, all transactions concerning the administration of the shares allocated to that economic union may be carried out by any one of its members,