Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 suspending the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain agricultural and industrial products

The Commission, assisted by the Economic Tariff Questions Group (ETQG), has reviewed all requests for temporary suspension of autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties forwarded by the Member States. ETQG consists of delegations from all Member States plus Turkey. It met three times before the changes laid down in this proposal have been agreed.

Each request (new, amended or rolled-over requests) has been assessed carefully by the group. In particular, preventing any harm for EU producers, the strengthening and consolidation of the competiveness of EU production and the creation or maintenance of employment are part of the examination of each case. This assessment has been carried out by discussions within the group and consultation by Member States of the concerned industries, associations, chambres of commerce and other stakeholders involved.

This proposal concerns a number of agricultural and industrial products. The suspension requests were examined in the light of the criteria set out in the Communication from the Commission concerning autonomous tariff suspensions and quotas. Following this review, the Commission considers that the suspension of duties is justified for the products listed in Annex I of this proposal. Also, Annex I lists i) products for which the wording of their description had to be changed, ii) products for which a new CN or TARIC code became necessary or iii) products which were reviewed and for which a new date for mandatory review was set.

Products for which tariff suspension is no longer in the Union's economic interests have to be withdrawn. Accordingly, Annex II lists the products removed from the Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 and products for which the wording of their description had to be changed, products for which a new CN or TARIC code became necessary or products for which a new date for mandatory review was set, which are replaced by new description, codes and/or date in Annex I.

The list of relevant supplementary units in the Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 should be updated. Thus, Annex III contains the list of codes of the supplementary units of the products listed in Annex I of this proposal and Annex IV of the attached proposal lists codes of the supplementary units of the products removed from the Annex I of the above mentioned Regulation.

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)705: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:705:FIN

---