Council Regulation (EEC) No 3596/84 of 18 December 1984 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for prepared or preserved sardines, falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Morocco (1985)

COUNCIL  REGULATION (EEC) No 3596/84
of 18 December 1984
opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for prepared or preserved sardines, falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Morocco (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 Cooperation Agreement between the Community and Morocco (1), supplemented by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3511/81 of 3 December 1981 laying down the arrangements applicable to trade between Greece and Morocco (2), provides that prepared and preserved sardines, falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs Tariff and originating in Morocco, may be imported into the Community free of duty; whereas the detailed arrangements must be fixed by an exchange of letters between the Community and Morocco; whereas, since this exchange of letters has not yet taken place, it is advisable to renew until 31 December 1985 the Community arrangements which were applied in 1984; whereas it is advisable to open two Community tariff quotas for importations into the Community of the products in question, one duty-free tariff quota of 14 000 tonnes and the other of 6 000 tonnes at a rate of duty of 10 %; whereas these tariff quotas are to apply from 1 January 1985 until either the conclusion of the exchange of letters provided for in Article 19 of the Cooperation Agreement between the Community and Morocco or until such time as Community arrangements for imports of the products in question are applied, but until 31 December 1985 at the latest;
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure for all Community importers equal and uninterrupted access to the abovementioned quotas and uninterrupted application of the rates laid down for these quotas to all imports of the products concerned into all Member States until the quotas have been used up; whereas, having regard to the principles mentioned above, the Community nature of the quotas can be respected by allocating the Community tariff quotas among the Member States; whereas, in order to reflect as accurately as possible the true trend of the market in the products in question, such allocation should be in proportion to the requirements of the Member States, calculated by reference to the statistics for imports from Morocco over a representative reference period and also to the economic outlook for the quota period in question;
Whereas, during the last three years for which statistics are available, the corresponding imports into each of the Member States represent the following percentages of the imports into the Community from Morocco of the products concerned:
1.2.3.4 //   //   //   //   // Member States  // 1981  // 1982  // 1983  //   //   //   //   // Benelux  // 6,41  // 10,27  // 7,27  // Denmark  // 0,21  // 0,35  // 0,00  // Germany  // 11,31  // 11,64  // 15,62  // Greece  // 2,69  // 0,51  // 1,02  // France  // 53,28  // 64,64  // 57,00  // Ireland  // 0,00  // 0,00  // 0,00  // Italy  // 0,78  // 0,04  // 0,76  // United Kingdom  // 25,32  // 12,55  // 18,33  //   //   //   //
Whereas, in view of these factors and of the estimates submitted by certain Member States initial shares may be fixed approximately at the following percentages:
Benelux 7,8
Denmark 0,2
Germany 12,8
Greece 1,1
France 58,5
Ireland 0,1
Italy 0,6
United Kingdom 18,9
Whereas, in order to take into account import trends for the products concerned in the various Member States, each quota should be divided into two instalments, the first being shared among the Member States and the second constituting a reserve to cover at a later date the requirements of the Member States which have used up their initial quota shares; whereas, in order to give importers in each Member State a certain degree of security, the first instalment of the Community quotas should, under the circumstances, be fixed at 70 % respectively of the quota volumes;
Whereas, the Member States' initial shares may be used up at different times; whereas, in order to take this fact into account and avoid any break in continuity, any Member State which has almost used up its initial quota shares should draw an additional share from the corresponding reserve; whereas this must be done by each Member State as and when each of its additional shares is almost used up, and repeated as many times as the reserve allows; whereas the initial and additional shares must be valid until the end of the quota period; whereas this method of administration requires close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission and the latter must be in a position to monitor the extent to which the quota amounts have been used up and to inform Member States thereof;
Whereas, if, at a given date in the quota period, a substantial quantity remains unused in any Member State, it is essential that that Member State should return a significant proportion to the corresponding reserve to prevent a part of any tariff quota from 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, any operation relating to the administration of the quota shares allocated to that economic union may be carried out by any of its members,