Considerations on COM(2021)707 - Opening and management of autonomous tariff quotas of the Union for certain agricultural and industrial products

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dossier COM(2021)707 - Opening and management of autonomous tariff quotas of the Union for certain agricultural and industrial products.
document COM(2021)707 EN
date December 20, 2021
 
table>(1)The production of certain agricultural and industrial products in the Union is insufficient to meet the specific requirements of the user industries in the Union. Consequently, Union supplies of those products depend on imports from third countries. The most urgent Union requirements for the products concerned should be met immediately on the most favorable terms. Autonomous tariff quotas of the Union (‘quotas’) at preferential quota duty rates should therefore be opened within the limits of appropriate quota volumes, taking account of the need not to disturb the markets for such products or impede the establishment or development of production in the Union.
(2)It is necessary to ensure equal and uninterrupted access to the quotas for all importers in the Union and to ensure the uninterrupted application of the quota duty rates laid down for those quotas to all imports of the products concerned into all Member States until the quotas have been exhausted.

(3)Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 (1) provides for a system of quota management which ensures equal and uninterrupted access to the quotas and uninterrupted application of the quota duty rates, and which follows the chronological order of the dates of acceptance of declarations of release for free circulation. The quotas opened by this Regulation should therefore be managed by the Commission and the Member States in accordance with that system.

(4)The quota volumes are mostly expressed in supplementary units of weight. For certain products for which a quota is opened, the quota volume is set out in another supplementary unit. Where no supplementary unit is specified for those products in the Combined Nomenclature laid down in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 (2) (‘the Combined Nomenclature’), there can be uncertainty in respect of the supplementary unit used. For the sake of clarity and in the interests of better quota management, it is therefore necessary to provide that, in order to benefit from those quotas, the exact quantity of the products imported be entered in the declaration for release for free circulation using the supplementary unit of the quota volume set out for those products in this Regulation.

(5)It is necessary to clarify that any mixtures, preparations or products made up of different components containing products subject to quotas should be excluded from the scope of this Regulation, as only the products as described in this Regulation should be subject to the quotas.

(6)Council Regulation (EU) No 1388/2013 (3) has been amended many times. In addition, as the coding of the Combined Nomenclature has been updated by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1832 (4), a large number of changes to Regulation (EU) No 1388/2013 would be required. Therefore, in the interests of clarity and transparency, that Regulation should be replaced in its entirety.

(7)In accordance with the principle of proportionality, it is necessary and appropriate for the achievement of the basic objective of promoting trade between Member States and third countries to lay down rules in order to balance the different commercial interests of economic operators in the Union without changing the Union’s World Trade Organization schedule. This Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve the objectives pursued in accordance with Article 5(4) of the Treaty on European Union.

(8)In order to avoid any interruption of the application of the quota scheme and to comply with the guidelines set out in the communication from the Commission of 13 December 2011 concerning autonomous tariff suspensions and quotas, the quotas for the products listed in this Regulation should apply from 1 January 2022. This Regulation should therefore enter into force as a matter of urgency,