Report from the Commission to the Council - Flowers - method of calculating Community producer and import prices
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, 06. 11. 1998 COM(1998) 635 final h-^ '• • -M *'• k'i REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL Flowers - method of calculating Community producer and import prices k l T O kï IKOM TIIK( OM MISSION TO TIIK('0|IN< II, Flowers - method of calculating Community producer and import prices 1. INTRODUCTION Council Regulation (EEC) No 4088/87 of 21 December 1987 fixing conditions for the application of preferential customs duties on flowers originating in Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip1, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1300/972 of 30 June 1997, provides for preferential customs duties to be granted within quota limits and, for certain cut flowers (roses and carnations), only if the import price is at least 85% of the Community producer price for these products. imports of certain The main change introduced in June 1997 by Council Regulation (EC) No 1300/97 is (he use of weighted averages instead of arithmetical averages in order to mirror reality more closely. Article 2 states that twelve months after the entry into force of the Regulation the Commission must present to the Council an assessment report on the implementation of this new system for determining Community producer prices, possibly accompanied by proposals for adjustments to be made to it. Commission Regulation (EEC) No 700/883 of 17 March 1988 has been amended by Regulation (EC) No 2062/974 of 21 October 1997 to incorporate these changes, and Member States have been notifying the new prices to the Commission since 3 November 1997. 2. BRIBE QUTllNE OF THE METHOD Since the introduction of the new system, the Member States have notified the data required under (he above Regulations, i. e. the weighted producer and import prices (indicating the total quantities in each case) for each of the four groups of flowers in question (bloom carnations, spray carnations, large-flowered roses, small-flowered roses). This data is notified to the Commission every two weeks, in national currency per 100 pieces, by fax or by IDES electronic transfer. However France does not notify the import quantities within the required time, which means that French import prices have not been weighted; and these are not, therefore, taken into consideration in calculating the Community average. France has committed itself to setting up a system to rectify this problem. 1 OJL 382, 31. 12. 1987, p. 22. 2 OJL 177, 5. 7. 1997, p. 1. 3 OJ L72, 18. 3. 1988, p. 16. 4 OJ 1,289,22. 10. 1997, p. 1 As for the moment prices are only notified for flowers imported from Israel and Morocco, each Member State has to notify 12 figures at most (4 producer prices + quantities, and 8 import prices + quantities). The Commission converts the notified prices into ECU (using the valid agricultural conversion rate) and weights them to obtain Community averages. Community producer prices are published every two weeks in the Official Journal of the European Communities in an Annex to a Commission Regulation. If necessary, further Regulations are adopted to suspend or reintroduce preferential customs duties for Israel and/or Morocco, for each group of flowers. Data is collected for the previous fifteen days and is used to determine the customs duties that apply for the following two weeks. This period begins on a Wednesday so that the Commission has time to finalise the procedure. 3. ASSilSSMliN'l' »F THlvMHTHOP Impact of this method on producer prices and on customs duties to be paid 3. 1. Producer prices (see enclosed Tables 1 to 4) Although the graphs showing the evolution of prices in 1997/98 (weeks 45 to 24) mirror the trends already observed over the two previous years, for the same periods, the peaks are much sharper. This is because the old method eliminated the extremes - 40% either side of the calculated average - while the new method takes all values into account. 3. 2. Application of customs duties (see enclosed Table 5) In Israel, the situation relating to bloom carnations and small-flowered roses is comparable with that of the previous year for the same period; for largc- llowcrcd roses the situation is comparable with that of 2 years ago, and for spray carnations it is mid-way between these two years. Morocco benefits, as in the past, from preferential customs duties for the entire quota period except for two two-week periods for bloom carnations. These results are therefore very similar to those obtained by the old method. 4. CONCLUSION The results obtained by the new method as regards the suspension of preferential customs duties arc fairly similar to those obtained by the old method, while having the advantage of mirroring market realities more closely, since producer prices arc calculated on the basis of currenl weighted prices rather than arithmetical averages over a three-year period as before. The Commission therefore considers that it is not necessary for the time being to draft proposals to modify the present system which was introduced in late 1997. TABLE 1 Reference ECU/100 week No 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 45-46 47-48 49-50 51-52 01-02 03-04 05-06 07-08 09-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-18 19-20 21-22 23-24 25-26 27-28 29-30 31-32 33-34 35-35 37-38 39-40 41-42 43-44 13,91 12,23 14,62 16,37 15,06 13,20 14,97 15,83 17,01 11,74 11,68 16,09 17,16 14,36 14,04 13,96 12,60 12,17 12,21 15,39 13,97 13,83 14,79 13,42 12,54 11,87 12,96 13,07 14,97 11,24 10,48 10,46 10,12 8,30 9,20 9,80 12,22 13,56 13,97 14,33 14,31 19,40 12,54 12,92 13,44 16,90 13,87 13,55 14,90 14,25 13,36 12,56 12,38 12,27 14,23 13,37 11,04 10,29 9,94 8,52 8,42 9,62 11,91 13,10 14,47 14,45 14,23 19,11 TABLE 2 Reference ECU/100 Week No 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 11,27 9,19 9,87 11,74 11,15 11,68 11,86 11,94 11,18 10,37 10,23 10,72 14,23 8,40 7,27 10,56 45-46 47-48 49-50 51-52 01-02 03-04 05-06 07-08 09-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-18 19-20 21-22 23 - 24 25-26 27-28 29-30 31-32 33-34 35-36 37-38 39-40 41-42 43-44 10,83 11,39 9. 82 9,16 8,87 9. 61 10,84 11,55 11,65 9,84 11,02 9,92 9,74 12,85 9,55 9,46 10,37 10,60 10,16 8,92 7,77 9,09 11,69 12,24 12,73 12,72 13,55 10,03 10,40 9,94 10,09 10,36 11,94 11,49 10,61 11,18 9,97 9,38 12,06 10,60 11,37 9,96 10,00 9,95 9,02 8,05 9,27 11,38 12,21 11,93 12,17 13,04 TABLE 3 Reference ECU/100 Week No 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 45-46 47-48 49-50 51-52 01-02 03-04 05-06 07 - 08 09-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-18 19-20 21-22 23-24 25-26 27-28 29-30 31-32 33-34 35-36 37-38 39-40 41-42 43-44 36,84 42,81 44,15 56,02 46,23 47,65 65,00 71,64 58,27 41,90 27,37 29,46 33,31 31,78 29,37 31,83 28,01 27,94 34,31 42,10 42,26 49,39 57,76 55,25 49,57 38,14 29,52 27,52 29,34 25,99 27,29 25,67 21,19 20,24 20,30 19,25 20,69 25,17 26,14 25,00 26,68 32,17 30,19 31,92 36,28 48,40 43,35 52,21 61,54 63,70 53,28 49,54 36,02 31,31 32,85 32,29 30,66 26,38 24,57 21,99 21,01 20,79 22,31 26,35 27,53 26,53 27,98 33,70 TABLE 4 Reference ECU/100 week No 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 14,62 16,28 16,95 21,03 20,84 21,90 26,85 27,60 20,15 15,12 14,27 15,79 16,37 15,18 15,11 14,30 45-46 47-48 49-50 51-52 01-02 03-04 05-06 07-08 09-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-18 19-20 21-22 23 - 24 25-26 27-28 29-30 31-32 33-34 35-36 37-38 39-40 41-42 43-44 16,11 17,00 17,56 22,69 20,32 21,49 27,07 29,93 26,76 21,33 19,12 17,90 18,29 16,31 16,55 12,66 11,64 9,90 9,35 9,02 10,33 12,56 12,06 12,70 14,80 18,41 17,31 16,97 18,45 25,16 21,67 19,36 23,07 30,37 25,28 22,37 20,06 16,73 17,40 19,80 18,44 13,97 12,9 11,23 10,93 13,17 12,7 14,34 14,13 13,78 15,06 19,19 TABLE 5 ISRAEL bloom carnations spray carnations large-flowered roses 1997/98 (current method) small-flowered roses MOROCCO bloom carnations spray carnations large-flowered roses 1997/98 (current method) small-flowered roses full (quota exhausted) pref. autom. preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential full preferential preferential full full full full pref. autom. preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential full preferential preferential full full full full full full full full full full full full full full preferential preferential full full preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential full: 28 days (quota period closed on 31/5/98) preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential full preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential full full full full preferential full full preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential preferential full: 42 days (quota period closed on 14/5/98) No of weeks 47-48 49-50 51 -52 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-18 19-20 21-22 23-24 25-26 from 19 Nov. '97 •K to 30 June 1998 Tot. = 224 days 19/11/97-30/06/98 (tot. : 224 days) preferential full 18/11/96-29/06/97 (tot. : 224 days) preferential full 19/11/95-30/6/96 (tot. : 225 days) preferential full (1996: 29 days in February) 112 112 110 114 91 134 154 70 126 98 184 41 0 224 65 159 6 219 84 140 78 146 131 94 168 28 + 28* = 56 175 19+ 28* = 49 182 15+ 28* = 43 196 *28 196 *28 196 *28 182 *42 182 *42 173 10+ 42* = 52 182 *42 182 *42 182 *42 * "Full" because quota period closed ISSN 0254-1475 COM(98) 635 final DOCUMENTS EN 03 10 17 02 Catalogue number : CB-CO-98-621-EN-C Office for Official Publications of the European Communities L-2985 Luxembourg