Council Regulation (EEC) No 3586/88 of 8 November 1988 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for frozen peas originating in Sweden (1989)

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3586/88 of 8 November 1988 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for frozen peas originating in Sweden (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 Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Whereas an Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Sweden was concluded on 22 July 1972; whereas following the accession of Spain and Portugal to the Community, an Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters has been  concluded and approved by Council Decision 86/558/EEC (1);
Whereas the said Agreement provides for the opening of a 6 000-tonne Community tariff quota at a reduced rate of duty for frozen peas originating in Sweden, 4 500 tonnes of which are reserved for Spain; whereas therefore, the tariff quota in question  should be opened for the period from 1 January to 31 December 1989;
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 until the quota is exhausted; whereas, in the light of these principles,  allocation of the tariff quota among the Member States would seem to preserve the Community nature of the quota; whereas in order to correspond as closely as possible to the real trend of the market for the product in question the allocation should  reflect the requirements of the Member States based on statistics of imports of the said products from Sweden during a representative reference period and on the economic outlook for the quota year in question;
Whereas during the last three years for which statistics are available, imports of peas from Sweden into each of the Member States, other than Spain, were as follows:
(tonnes)     Member State 1985 1986 1987 Benelux     20      0      0 Denmark     42    273    363 Germany  2 567  3 475  2 924 Greece    272     91    315 France      0      0     20 Ireland      0      0      0 Italy 14 879 14 643 12 953 Portugal      0    262    208 United Kingdom  1 160  1 499     40 18 940 20 243 16 823  Whereas, during the years under consideration, the products in question were imported only by certain Member States and not at all by the other Member States; whereas, under these circumstances, initial shares should be allocated to the importing Member  States and the other Member States should be guaranteed access to the tariff quota when notification is given of imports into those States of the products concerned; whereas these arrangements for allocation will also ensure the uniform application of  the Common Customs Tariff;
Whereas in view of these factors, the initial percentage shares of the quota volume of the Member States other than Spain can be expressed approximately as follows:
Benelux0,04 Denmark1,21 Germany16,00 Greece1,21 France0,04 Italy75,84 Portugal0,84 United Kingdom4,82 Whereas to allow for the trend of imports of the product concerned, 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; whereas, to afford importers in each Member State some degree of certainty, the first part of the tariff quota should be set at a high level, which in this case could be 98 % of the quota volume;
Whereas the initial shares may be used up at different rates; whereas, in order to avoid any break in the continuity of supplies on this account, it should be provided that any Member State which has almost used up its initial share should draw an  additional share from the reserve; whereas, each time its additional share is almost used up, a Member State should draw a further share and so on 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 form of administration requires close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission and the latter must be able to monitor the extent to which the quota volume has been used up and inform the Member States  accordingly;
Whereas if at a given date in the quota period a considerable quantity of a Member State's initial share remains unused, it is essential that the Member State concerned should return a significant proportion thereof to the reserve in order to prevent part of the Community 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 concerning the administration of the quota shares allocated to  that economic union may be carried out by any one of its members,