29. 11.°95 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 285/5 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2738/95 of 28 November 1995 establishing rules for the management and distribution of textile quotas established for the year 1996 under Council Regulation (EC) No 517/94 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 517/94 of 7 March 1994 relating to the common rules for the import of textile products from certain third countries not covered by bilateral agreements, protocols or other arran- gements, or by other specific Community import rules (), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1325/95 (3), and in particular Article 17 (3) and (6) and Article 21 (2) and (3) thereof, in relation to Article 25 (3) thereof, Whereas the Council, by its Regulation (EC) No 517/94, established quantitative restrictions on imports of certain textile products originating in certain third countries and envisaged, in Article 17 (2), that these quotas will be allo- cated in the chronological reception order of the notifica- tions from the Member States according to the principle of first come, first served ; Whereas past experience has revealed that for certain quotas the established annual quantities were insufficient to cover the quantities subject to requests for import authorizations notified to the Member States; whereas there are serious reasons to believe that, for all the quotas established by Regulation (EC) No 517/94 requests for import authorizations to be notified by the competent Member States’ authorities will exceed the quantitative limits established for 1996 ; Whereas Regulation (EC) No 517/94, Article 17 (3), stipu- lates that is is possible, in these circumstances, to make use of allocation methods which differ from the allocation method based exclusively on the chronological reception order of the notifications from Member States, as well as to envisage the division of the quotas in tranches; Whereas it is advisable, in order not to affect unduly the continuity of trade flows, to adopt before the start of the quota year, rules for management and distribution of the quotas fixed established for 1996 by Regulation (EC) No 517/94; Whereas it seems appropriate for a large majority of the quotas to adjust the allocation method based on the chro- nological reception order of the notifications from () OJ No L 67, 10. 3. 1994, p. 1. ) OJ No L 128, 13. 6. 1995, p. 1. Member States according to the principle of first come, first served in order to satisfy the greatest number of operators by limiting the quantities to be attributed to each operator, on the basis of this method, to 2 maximum amount at a level which allows the operators concerned to perform economically justifiable transactions ; Whereas as far as the other quotas are concerned which seem to be even more insufficient it is appropriate to have a method of allocation which takes into account tradi- tional trade flows ; whereas to this end it is appropriate to divide the quotas to be allocated into two parts, one reserved for traditional importers, the other for other applicants, and to fix the respective shares reserved for these different categories of operators at levels which, while taking into account traditional trade flows, will nevertheless ensure non-traditional importers significant access to the quotas ; whereas it is necessary to define the concept of traditional importers with reference to the year 1992, 1993 not being representative due to certain distor- tions which characterized imports during this period within the Community ; Whereas with regard to the distribution of the part reserved to other operators, other than traditional impor- ters, past experience has shown that the method based on the reception in chronological order of the notifications from the Member States satisfied only a limited number of operators and that the application of a method of distribution in proportion to the requested quantities on the basis of a simultaneous examination of all quantities notified to the Commission might satisfy a larger number of operators; whereas it is appropriate for the same reasons to envisage, furthermore, that the quantities requested by each individual operator, cannot exceed a predetermined quantity fixed to a level economically significant ; Whereas, it is possible that, in certain cases, for certain categories and countries concerned, quantities in a part reserved remain available after application of quantitative criteria adopted ; whereas it is therefore appropriate for an optimum distribution of each quantitative limit to envi- sage the possibility of a transfer of quantities in between the different parts reserved for the two categories of operators ; Whereas for the purposes of quota allocation, it is appro- priate to set a time period for the submission of licence applications by traditional and other importers ;