Council Regulation (EEC) No 3477/86 of 10 November 1986 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for certain prepared or preserved fish, falling within heading No ex 16.04 of the Common Customs Tariff, from Portugal (1987)

COUNCIL  REGULATION (EEC) No 3477/86
of 10 November 1986
opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for certain prepared or preserved fish, falling within heading No ex 16.04 of the Common Customs Tariff, from Portugal (1987)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal and in particular Article 362 thereof,
Having regard to the draft Regulation submitted by the Commission,
Whereas Article 362 of the Act of Accession provides that during the period of progressive elimination of customs duties between the Community of Ten and Portugal, prepared or preserved sardines, prepared or preserved tunny, prepared or preserved mackerel, falling within subheadings 16.04 D, E and ex F of the Common Customs Tariff from Portugal can be imported duty-free into the Community of Ten within the limits of annual Community tariff quotas of 5 000 tonnes, 1 000 tonnes and 1 000 tonnes respectively; whereas these quotas should be opened for 1987;
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure for all importers of the Community of Ten 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 these Member States until the quotas have been used up; whereas having regard to the above principles, the Community nature of the quotas can be respected by allocating the Community tariff quotas among these Member States; whereas, in order to reflect as accurately as possible the true trend of the market in the products concerned, such allocation should be in proportion to the requirements of the Member States, assessed by reference to the statistics of each State's imports from Portugal over a representative reference period and also to the economic outlook for the quota period concerned;
Whereas, during the last three years for which statistics are available, the corresponding imports of each Member State represent the following percentages of imports into the Community from Portugal of the product in question:
1.2.3.4 //  //  //  //  // Member States  // 1983   // 1984  // 1985   //    //   //   //
Sardines
1.2.3.4 //  //  //  //  // Benelux   // 7,4   // 6,7   // 6,4   // Denmark   // 1,6   // 2,1   // 2,6   // Germany   // 28,3  // 23,1   // 28,1   // Greece   // 0,2   // 0,1   // -  // France   // 21,4   // 17,0   // 19,0   // Ireland   // 0,2  // 0,1   // 0,3   // Italy   // 5,1   // 4,5   // 7,1  // United Kingdom   // 35,8   // 46,4   // 36,5   //    //  //   //
Tunny
1.2.3.4 //  //  //  //  // Benelux   // -   // -   // -  // Denmark   // -   // -   // -   // Germany   // -   // 1,1  // 0,7   // Greece   // -   // -   // 2,1   // France   // 2,9   // 7,2   // 2,1   // Ireland   // -   // -   // -   // Italy  // 97,1   // 91,7   // 95,1   // United Kingdom   // -   // -  // -   //    //   //   //
Mackerel
1.2.3.4 //  //  //  //  // Benelux   // 10,3   // 7,4  // 5,7   // Denmark   // -   // -   // -   // Germany   // -  // -   // -   // Greece   // -   // -   // -   // France  // -   // 0,3   // -   // Ireland   // -   // -   // -  // Italy   // 89,7   // 90,0   // 94,3   // United Kingdom  // -   // 2,3   // -   //    //   //   //
Whereas both these percentages and the estimates from certain Member States should be taken into account as well as the need to ensure that, in the circumstances the obligations provided for in the Act of Accession are allocated fairly among the Member States; whereas the approximate percentages of the initial quota shares may therefore be fixed as follows:
1.2.3.4 //  //  //  //  // Member States   // Sardines  // Tunny   // Mackerel   //    //   //   //   // Benelux  // 7,1   // 1,0   // 10,0   // Denmark   // 1,9   // 1,0  // 1,0   // Germany   // 31,1   // 3,0   // 1,0   // Greece  // 0,2   // 5,0   // 1,0   // France   // 15,0   // 10,0  // 1,0   // Ireland   // 0,3   // 1,0   // 1,0   // Italy  // 4,8   // 77,0   // 84,0   // United Kingdom   // 39,6  // 1,0   // 1,0   //    //   //   //
Whereas, in order to take into account import trends for the products concerned in the various Member States, each of the quota amounts should be divided into two instalments, the first instalment being allocated among 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 present circumstances, be fixed at around 80 % of each of the quota amounts;
Whereas the initial quota shares of the Member States 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 share should draw an additional quota 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 quota shares must be valid until the end of the quota period; whereas this method of administration requires close cooperation between Member States and the Commission and the latter must, in particular, be in a position to monitor the extent to which the quota volumes have been used up and to inform the Member States thereof;
Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a substantial quantity of one of the initial shares remains unused in one or other Member State it is essential that that Member State should return a significant proportion to the reserve to prevent a part of any Community 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 operations relating to the administration of the quota shares allocated to that economic union may be carried out by any one of its members,