Council Regulation (EU) No 1388/2013 of 17 December 2013 opening and providing for the management of autonomous tariff quotas of the Union for certain agricultural and industrial products, and repealing Regulation (EU) No 7/2010

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 31 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Whereas:

1. The Union production of certain agricultural and industrial products is insufficient to meet the specific requirements of the user industries in the Union. Consequently Union supplies of those products depend to a considerable extent on imports from third countries. The most urgent Union needs for the products in question should be met immediately on the most favourable terms. Union tariff quotas at preferential duty rates should therefore be opened within the limits of appropriate volumes taking into account the need not to perturb the markets for such products or impede the establishment or development of Union production.

2. It is necessary to ensure for all Union importers equal and uninterrupted access to those quotas and to ensure the uninterrupted application of the rates laid down for the quotas to all imports of the products concerned into all Member States until the quotas have been exhausted.

3. Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93⁽¹⁾ provides for a system of tariff quota management which ensures equal and uninterrupted access to the quotas and uninterrupted application of the rates and follows the chronological order of dates of acceptance of declarations of release for free circulation. The tariff 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 usually expressed in tonnes. For certain products for which an autonomous tariff quota is opened the quota volume is set out in another measurement unit. Where for those products no supplementary measurement unit is specified in the Combined Nomenclature laid down in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87⁽²⁾ there can be uncertainty in respect of the measurement 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 autonomous tariff quotas, the exact quantity of the products imported be entered in the declaration for release for free circulation using the measurement unit of the quota volume set out for those products in the Annex to this Regulation.

5. Council Regulation (EU) No 7/2010⁽³⁾ has been amended many times. In the interest of transparency and in order to facilitate economic operators in following the goods subject to autonomous tariff quotas, it is appropriate to replace Regulation (EU) No 7/2010 in its entirety.

6. 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 commercial interest of economic operators in the Union without changing the Union's Word Trade Organisation (WTO) 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.

7. Since the tariff quotas must take effect from 1 January 2014, this Regulation should enter into force immediately upon its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union and should apply from 1 January 2014,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: