COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 2178/95

of 8 August 1995

opening and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas and ceilings for certain industrial and fishery products originating in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and establishing the detailed provisions for adapting these quotas and ceilings

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 113 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Whereas the Free Trade Agreements between the European Community, the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one hand, and the Republics of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, of the other hand, signed on 18 July 1994, stipulate that certain products originating in these countries may attract a reduced or zero rate of duty on import into the Community, within the limits of tariff quotas or ceilings;

Whereas the decision for the opening of Community quotas should be taken by the Community, in the execution of its international obligations, in the case of the products listed in Annexes I, II and III to this Regulation; whereas particular care should be taken to ensure that all Community importers have equal and continuous access to those quotas and that the rates laid down for the quotas are applied uninterruptedly to all imports of the products in question into all Member States until the quotas are exhausted; whereas, to ensure the efficiency of a common administration of these quotas, there is no obstacle to authorizing the Member States to draw from the quota volumes the necessary quantities corresponding to actual imports; whereas, however, this method of administration requires close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission and the latter must in particular be able to monitor the rate at which the quotas are used up and inform the Member States accordingly;

Whereas in the case of the products listed in Annex IV to this Regulation, which are subject to Community tariff ceilings, Community surveillance may be achieved by means of an administrative procedure based on charging imports of the products in question against the ceilings at Community level as and when products are entered with the customs authorities for free circulation;

Whereas this administrative procedure requires close and particularly rapid cooperation between the Member States and the Commission, and the latter must in particular be able to monitor quantities charged against the ceilings and inform the Member States accordingly; whereas this cooperation has to be particularly close, since the Commission must be able to take appropriate measures to re-establish customs duties once a ceiling is reached;

Whereas the tariff quotas and ceilings laid down in the Agreements in question relate to a period of several years; whereas the agreements have already fixed the level of the annual increase in the volume of the tariff quotas and ceilings; whereas the agreements also set out the conditions required for granting the tariff concessions within the limits of the said tariff quotas and ceilings; whereas, therefore, in the interests of rationalizing implementation of the measures concerned, the provisions relating to tariff quotas and ceilings for agricultural or industrial products currently contained in the various regulations covering each of the abovementioned countries should be grouped together in a single regulation, applicable for a period of several years;

Whereas amendments to the combined nomenclature and Taric codes and adaptations of quota volumes and rates arising from decisions of the Council or Commission do not involve changes of substance; whereas, in the interests of simplicity, provision should be made for the Commission to make the necessary amendments and technical adaptations to the Annexes to this Regulation after first having obtained the opinion of the Customs Code Committee;

Whereas, for the same reasons, this procedure can be applied in case of amendment to the agreements existing between the Community and these countries, in so far as any amendments thus agreed specify the products eligible for the benefit of tariff quotas or ceilings, their volumes, rates of duty and quota periods and any conditions for granting that benefit; whereas provision should therefore be made for the Commission to make corresponding amendments to the provisions and annexes to this Regulation, after obtaining the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,

HAS ADOPTED THE REGULATION:

Article 1

From 1 January to 31 December of each year goods originating in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania which are listed in Annexes I, II, III and IV to this Regulation shall be subject to tariff quotas or ceilings in accordance with the provisions contained within those Annexes.

Article 2

1. The tariff quotas referred to in Article 1 shall be administered by the Commission, which may take all appropriate administrative measures in order to ensure efficient administration thereof.

2. Where an importer declares a product covered by this Regulation for free circulation in a Member State and applies to take advantage of the preferential arrangements, and that declaration is accepted by the customs authorities, the Member State concerned shall, by notifying the Commission, draw an amount corresponding to its requirements from the quota volume.

Requests for drawings, indicating the date of acceptance of the said declarations, must be sent to the Commission without delay.

The drawings shall be granted by the Commission by reference to the date of acceptance of the declaration for free circulation by the customs authorities of the Member State concerned, to the extent that the available balance so permits.

3. If a Member State does not use the quantities drawn, it shall return them to the corresponding quota volume as soon as possible.

4. If the quantities requested are greater than the available balance of the quota volume, the balance shall be allocated on a pro rata basis. The Commission shall inform the Member States of the drawings made.

Article 3

1. Quantities shall be charged against the ceilings as and when products are declared to the customs authorities for free circulation.

Goods may be charged against a ceiling only if the movement certificate is presented before the date on which levying of customs duties is re-established.

2. The level of utilization of the ceilings shall be determined at Community level on the basis of the imports charged against them in accordance with paragraph 1.

Member States shall send the Commission, not later than the 15th day of each month, statements of the quantities charged during the preceding month.

3. As soon as the ceilings have been reached, the Commission may adopt a regulation re-establishing the customs duties applicable to the third countries in question until the end of the calendar year.

When the adoption of such a regulation is requested by a Member State, the Commission shall examine the request within the following five days and shall inform the requesting Member State of the action it considers it should take as a result of the request, in the light in particular, of the statements sent as provided for in paragraph 2.

Article 4

In order to ensure compliance with this Regulation, the Commission shall take all appropriate measures, in close cooperation with the Member States.

Article 5

Each Member State shall ensure that importers of the products in question have equal and uninterrupted access to the quotas for as long as the balance of the relevant quota volumes so permits.

Article 6

1. The provisions required for the implementation of this Regulation, and in particular:

(a) any amendments and technical adaptations rendered necessary by amendments to the combined nomenclature and Taric codes; and

(b) the necessary adaptations arising from the conclusion by the Council of protocols, exchanges of letters within the framework of existing agreements, or agreements between the Community and these countries under the agreements referred to in this Regulation;

shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 7 (2).

2. Provisions adopted pursuant to this Regulation shall not authorize the Commission to:

- carry over preferential quantities from one quota period to another,

- transfer quantities from one Community tariff quota or ceiling to another,

- open and manage tariff quotas or ceilings under new agreements.

Article 7

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Customs Code Committee established by Article 247 of Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 (1).

2. The representative of the Commission shall submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The Committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft within a time limit which the chair may lay down according to the urgency of the matter. The opinion shall be delivered by the majority laid down in Article 148 (2) of the Treaty in the case of decisions which the Council is required to adopt on a proposal from the Commission. The votes of the representatives of the Member States within the Committee shall be weighted in the manner set out in that Article. The chair shall not vote.

The Commission shall adopt the measures, which apply immediately. However, if these measures are not in accordance with the opinion of the Committee, they shall be communicated by the Commission to the Council forthwith. In that event:

- the Commission shall defer application of the measures which it has decided for three months from the date of such communication,

- the Council, acting by qualified majority, may take a different decision within the period referred to in the previous paragraph.

3. The Committee may examine any question concerning the application of this Regulation which is raised by its chair either at the latter's initiative or at the request of a Member State.

Article 8

The protocol concerning the definition of the concept of originating products and methods of administrative cooperation annexed to the Free Trade Agreements concluded between the Community and each of the Republics referred to in Article 1 shall apply.

Article 9

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall apply with effect from 1 January 1995.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 8 August 1995.

For the Council

The President

J. SOLANA

(1) OJ No L 302, 19. 10. 1992, p. 1.

ANNEX I

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ANNEX II

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ANNEX III

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ANNEX IV

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