COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) No 631/2011
of 21 June 2011
amending Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 temporarily suspending the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain industrial, agricultural and fishery products
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)
It is in the interest of the Union to suspend totally the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on a certain number of new products currently not listed in the Annex to Council Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 (1).
(2)
Four products with CN and TARIC codes 2933399970, 2933399980, 8507803040 and 8507803050 which are currently listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 should be deleted because it is no longer in the interest of the Union to maintain the suspension of autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties for those products.
(3)
It is necessary to modify the product description of 15 suspensions in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 in order to take account of technical product developments and economic trends on the market. Those suspensions should be deleted from the list in that Annex and reinserted as new suspensions using new descriptions. Moreover, TARIC codes for 12 products should be changed.
(4)
The suspensions for which those technical modifications are necessary should be deleted from the list of suspensions set out in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 and should be reinserted in that list using new product descriptions, or new TARIC codes.
(5)
In the interest of clarity, the modified entries should be marked with an asterisk in the lists of inserted and deleted suspensions set out in Annex I and Annex II to this Regulation.
(6)
Experience has shown that it is necessary to provide an expiry date for the suspensions set out in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 to ensure that account is taken of technological and economic changes. This should not exclude the premature termination of certain measures or their continuation beyond the expiry date, if economic justification is provided, in accordance with the principles laid down in the Commission communication of 1998 concerning autonomous tariff suspensions and quotas (2).
(7)
Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(8)
Since the suspensions laid down in this Regulation have to take effect from 1 July 2011, this Regulation should apply from that date and enter into force immediately,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
The Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1255/96 is hereby amended as follows:
(1)
the rows for the products listed in Annex I to this Regulation are inserted;
(2)
the rows for the products for which the CN and TARIC codes are set out in Annex II to this Regulation are deleted.
Article 2
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 1 July 2011.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Luxembourg, 21 June 2011.