THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 36 and the third subparagraph of Article 37(2) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament,
Whereas:
(1)
Article 10(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1785/2003 of 29 September 2003 on the common organisation of the market in rice requires the presentation of an import or export licence for imports into the Community, or exports therefrom, of any of the products listed in Article 1 of that Regulation. To simplify the procedures applicable to economic operators, it should be possible to derogate from the obligation to present an import licence where it is not required for the management of certain imports of rice. The Commission should therefore be permitted to derogate from this obligation.
(2)
Under the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Community and India pursuant to Article XXVIII of the GATT 1994 relating to the modification of concessions with respect to rice provided for in EC Schedule CXL annexed to the GATT 1994, approved by Council Decision 2004/617/EC, the duty applicable to imports of husked rice of certain Basmati varieties originating in India is fixed at zero.
(3)
Under the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Community and Pakistan pursuant to Article XXVIII of the GATT 1994 relating to the modification of concessions with respect to rice provided for in EC Schedule CXL annexed to the GATT 1994, approved by Council Decision 2004/618/EC, the duty applicable to imports of husked rice of certain Basmati varieties originating in Pakistan is fixed at zero.
(4)
The Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Community and the United States of America relating to the method of calculation of applied duties for husked rice, approved by Council Decision 2005/476/EC, lays down the mechanism for calculating and fixing at regular intervals the duty applicable to imports of husked rice falling within CN code 1006 20.
(5)
The Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Community and Thailand pursuant to Article XXVIII of GATT 1994 relating to the modification of concessions with respect to rice provided for in EC Schedule CXL annexed to GATT 1994, approved by Council Decision 2005/953/EC, lays down the mechanism for calculating and fixing at regular intervals the duty applicable to imports of semi-milled and milled rice falling within CN code 1006 30, and fixes the duty applicable to imports of broken rice falling within CN code 1006 40 00 at EUR 65 per tonne.
(6)
The four decisions referred to above allow for the Commission to derogate from Regulation (EC) No 1785/2003 to permit the full application of the above Agreements. Those derogations apply until 30 June 2006 at the latest.
(7)
The provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1785/2003 relating to the fixing of the duty on the different types of rice covered by the above Agreements should therefore be amended.
(8)
To be eligible for zero import duty, Basmati rice must belong to a variety specified in the Agreements. To ascertain whether the Basmati rice imported at a zero rate of duty meets those characteristics, specific rules should be adopted by the Commission.
(9)
Regulation (EC) No 1785/2003 should therefore be amended accordingly. To ensure that these new import arrangements will be retained for operators after the deadline for the application of the derogations, this amendment should apply from 1 July 2006,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: