Regulation 2022/2563 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) 2021/2283 opening and providing for the management of autonomous tariff quotas of the Union for certain agricultural and industrial products - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 330/109

In order to ensure a sufficient and uninterrupted supply of certain agricultural and industrial products which are produced in insufficient quantities in the Union and thereby avoid any disturbances on the market for those products, autonomous tariff quotas of the Union (‘quotas’) were opened by Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2283 (1). Within those quotas, products can be imported into the Union at reduced or zero duty rates.

As it is in the Union’s interest to ensure an adequate supply of certain industrial products, and having regard to the fact that identical, equivalent or substitute products are not produced in sufficient quantities within the Union, it is necessary to open new tariff quotas with order numbers 09.2921, 09.2922, 09.2923, 09.2924, 09.2925, 09.2926, 09.2927 and 09.2931 at zero duty rates for appropriate quantities of those products.

As the scope of the tariff quotas with order numbers 09.2723 and 09.2763 has become inadequate to fulfil the needs of the economic operators in the Union, the description of the products covered by those quotas should be amended. The indication of the applicable TARIC code for those products should therefore be amended.

As is it in the Union’s interest to ensure an adequate supply of certain industrial products, the volumes of quotas with order numbers 09.2563, 09.2682, 09.2828 and 09.2854 should be increased.

As the Union production capacity for certain industrial products has been increased the volumes of quotas with order numbers 09.2575 and 09.2913 should be decreased.

For the quotas with order numbers 09.2583, 09.2819, 09.2839 and 09.2855, the quota period should be extended and the quota volume should be adapted on a yearly basis, as the quotas were opened for a period of six months only and it is still in the Union’s interest to maintain them.

As it is no longer in the Union’s interest to maintain the quotas with order numbers 09.2003, 09.2576, 09.2577, 09.2592, 09.2650, 09.2673, 09.2688, 09.2694, 09.2708, 09.2710, 09.2734, 09.2799, 09.2829, 09.2866 and 09.2880, they should be closed with effect from 1 January 2023.

Relations between the Union and Russia have deteriorated over the past years, particularly due to Russia’s disregard for international law and its unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine. On 6 October 2022, the Council adopted an eighth package of sanctions against Russia over its continued war of aggression against Ukraine and the reported atrocities committed by Russian armed forces in Ukraine.

While Russia is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Union can rely on the exceptions that apply under the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (the ‘WTO Agreement’), and in particular Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994, in particular with regard to the obligation to accord to products imported from Russia the advantages granted to like products imported from other countries (most-favoured-nation treatment).

In light of the deterioration of the relations between the Union and Russia, in order to ensure coherence with the Union’s actions and principles in the field of the...