Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) temporarily suspending all or some of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products (1997)
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, 14. 11 1996 COM(96)577 final Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) temporarily suspending all or some of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products (1997) (presented by the Commission) EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 1. During the third quarter of this year, the Commission, assisted by the Economic Tariff Problems Group, has reviewed all the requests for temporary suspension of autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties presented to it by the Member States, including requests for extending suspensions at present in force. 2. The attached proposal concerns a number of fishery products. For industrial products, the proposals for Regulations temporarily suspending the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties are also being prepared. 3. The requests for suspension relating to the above products were examined in the light of the criteria set out in the communication from the Commission to the Council and the Member States concerning autonomous tariff suspensions (see OJ C 235, 13. 9. 1989, p. 2). Following this review, the Commission considers that the suspension of duties is justified for the products listed in the Annex to the attached proposal of Regulation. 4. As seen from Article 1 of the above-mentioned proposal of Regulation, the period of validity of the proposed measure is 12 months. Ï ' ^Proposal" fera COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No /96 of 1996 temporarily suspending some or all of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products (1997) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 28 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas the Community relies at present on imports from third countries for supplies of certain fishery products; whereas it is in the interest of the Community to suspend partially or totally the customs duties for these products; whereas, in order to avoid endangering the prospects for developing the production of competitive products in the Community while ensuring that the industries concerned receive the necessary supplies, it is advisable to adopt these suspension measures only from 1 January to 31 December 1997, Whereas it is for the Community to decide to suspend these autonomous duties, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 1. From 1 January to 31 December 1997 the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on the products listed in the Annex are hereby suspended at the level indicated for each product. 2. Imports of these products shall qualify for the suspension referred to in paragraph 1 only provided that the free-at-frontier price laid down by the Member States, in accordance with Article 22 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3759/92 of 17 December 1992 on the common organization of the market in fishery and aquaculture products,1 is not lower than the reference price fixed or to be fixed by the Community for the products or categories of products in question. This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January Ï997. Article 2 This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at , For the Council The President 1 OJ No L 388, 31. 12. 1992, p. 1, as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1891/93 of 12. 7. 1993 (OJ No L 172, 15. 7. 1993, p. l). CN c o de & TARIC Description IMJNEX Rate of autonomous duty (%) 0001 0302 65 20 0303 75 20 ex0304 10 98 60 ex0304 90 97 31 0002 ex0302 69 99 30 ex0303 79 96 30 Dogfish of the species Squalus acanthias, fresh, chilled or frozen Sturgeons, fresh, chilled or frozen, for processing (a) (b) 0003 ex0302 69 99 40 Lump fish (Cyclopterus processing (a) lumpus) with roe, fresh or chilled, for 0004 ex0302 69 99 50 ex0303 79 96 40 Red Snapper {Lutjanus processing (a) (c) purpureus), fresh, chilled or frozen, for 0005 ex0302 70 00 11 ex0302 70 00 91 Hard fish roes, fresh or chilled 0006 ex0303 10 00 10 Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus frozen and headless, for the processing industry for manufacture into pastes or spreads (a) spp. ), 0008 ex0304 20 55 34 ex0304 20 58 44 ex0304 90 47 30 0009 ex0304 20 85 10 ex0304 90 61 10 Fillets and meat of hake of the genus Merluccius, species Merluccius merluccius, Merluccius hubbsi, (a) (b) in the form of industrial blocks, frozen, for processing excluding the bilinearis and Merluccius Fillets and meat of Alaska pollack (Theragra form of industrial blocks, frozen, for processing chalcogramma), in the (a) (b) 8. 5 8. 5 0010 ex0305 20 00 11 ex0305 20 00 19 Hard fish roes, salted or in brine 0011 ex0306 19 90 10 ex0306 29 90 10 Krill for processing (a) 0022 exl604 11 00 20 exl604 20 10 20 Pacific salmon [Oncorhynchus manufacture into pastes or spreads (a) spp. ), for the processing industry for 0023 exl604 30 90 10 Hard fish roes, washed, cleaned of adherent organs and simply salted or in brine, for processing (a) 0024 exl605 10 00 11 exl605 10 00 19 brevipes), Crabs of the species 'King' (Paralithod. es {Paralithodes 'Snow' (Chionoecetes stone' {Neolithodes serrata), shelled, whether or not frozen, in immediate packings of a net content of 2 kg or more antarctica, simply boiled in water and spp. ), 'Red' {Geryon quinquedens), 'Rough 'Kegani' (Erimacrus 'Blue' [Portunus isenbecki), asperrimus), camchaticus), Lithodes 'Mud' spp. ), 'Hanasaki' 'Queen' and (Scylla (a) (b) Control of the use for this special purpose shall be carried out pursuant to the relevant Community provisions. The suspension shall apply to fish intended to undergo any operation unless they are intended to undergo exclusively one or more of the following operations: - cleaning, gutting, tailing, heading, - cutting (excluding filleting or cutting of frozen blocks), - sampling, sorting, - labelling, - packing, - chilling, - freezing, - deep freezing, - thawing, separation. The suspension is not allowed for products intended, in addition, to undergo treatment (or operations) qualifying for suspension where such treatment (or operations) is (are) carried out at retail or catering level. The suspension of customs duties shall apply only to fish intended for human consumption. ) (c) However, the suspension is not allowed where processing is carried out by retail or catering undertakings. sT 1. Budget heading involved : Chapter 12 Article 120 FINANCIAL STATEMENT 2. Title of operation : Proposal for a Council Regulation temporarily suspending all or some of the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain fishery products (1997). 3. Legal basis : Article 28 of the EC Treaty. 4. Objective: Suspension of the CCT duties for the above products. 5. Measures aimed at prevention and protection: Checks on the end-use of some of the products covered by this Council Regulation will be carried out in accordance with Articles 291 to 304 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the implementation of the Community Customs Code. 6. Cost : In relation to the previous year (for which the cost of the entire operation had been estimated at ECU 39 000 000), the following is proposed: - two products should be removed from the list of suspensions (CN 03038000 and 16053030) because for these products the customs duties were suspended definitively under the negotiations on Article XXIV. 6 of the GATT; - the rate of the duty for "fillets and meat of hake" should be changed from 10% to 8. 5%. It is difficult to estimate the cost owing to the lack of recent Community statistics and the accession of three new Member States for which no economic details are at present available. However, the present estimate, taking into account: - the most recent known EUROSTAT statistics (1994); - the period of validity of this Regulation (1. 1. 1997/31. 12. 1997); - the presence of three new Member States, the impact of which is estimated at about 15%, produces an increase of ECU 880 000, corresponding to the products removed from the list, and a loss of ECU 445 000 corresponding to the 1. 5% decrease in the rate of duty for "fillets and meat of hake". This represents a ECU 435 000 reduction of duties not collected. Estimated cost of the present operation (1. 1. 1997/3112. 1997). The uncollected duties generated by the proposed operation can therefore be estimated as costing ECU 38 565 000, i. e. ECU 435 000 less than ECU 39 000 000 not collected under the previous operation (1 1. 1996/31. 12. 1996). REMARK The increase from the removal of the two products mentioned above applies only to this operation since the customs duties are always suspended under another operation. Seen overall, the amendments to the existing regulation would bring a total loss of revenue of ECU 445 000. € •»HKn\>: :"'V'M •:-. ISSN0254-1475 COM(96) 577 final DOCUMENTS EN 02 03 01 Catalogue number : CB-CO-96-577-EN-C ISBN 92-78-11513-4 Office for Official Publications of the European Communities L-2985 Luxembourg 1-