THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 499/96 of 19 March 1996 opening and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for certain fishery products and live horses originating in Iceland, and in particular Article 5(1)(a) and (b) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
In 2009, negotiations were concluded for an Additional Protocol to the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Republic of Iceland concerning special provisions applicable for the period 2009-2014 to imports into the European Union of certain fish and fishery products, hereinafter ‘the Additional Protocol’.
(2)
The signing, on behalf of the European Union, and the provisional application of the Additional Protocol has been authorised by Council Decision 2010/674/EU of 26 July 2010 on the signing and provisional application of an Agreement between the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway on an EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014, an Agreement between the European Union and Norway on a Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014, an Additional Protocol to the Agreement between the European Economic Community and Iceland concerning special provisions applicable to imports into the European Union of certain fish and fishery products 2009-2014 and an Additional Protocol to the Agreement between the European Economic Community and Norway concerning special provisions applicable to imports into the European Union of certain fish and fishery products 2009-2014.
(3)
The Additional Protocol provides for new annual duty-free tariff quotas at import into the European Union of certain fish and fishery products originating in Iceland.
(4)
In accordance with the Additional Protocol, the volumes of the duty-free tariff quotas for the first 12-month period from 1 May 2009 to 30 April 2010 will be allocated to the second tariff quota period. Furthermore, unused volumes of the tariff quotas for some products for the tariff quota period 1 March 2011 to 30 April 2011 should be carried over to the corresponding tariff quotas for the period 1 May 2011 to 30 April 2012.
(5)
In order to implement the tariff quotas provided for in the Additional Protocol, it is necessary to amend Regulation (EC) No 499/96.
(6)
It is necessary to replace the current reference in Regulation (EC) No 499/96 to free-at-frontier prices by a reference to the declared customs value in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 of 17 December 1999 on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products, and to provide that in order to qualify for the preferences laid down in the Additional Protocol, that value must at least be equal to any reference price fixed or to be fixed in accordance with the same Regulation.
(7)
Protocol 3 of the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Republic of Iceland defining the concept of originating products and setting out the arrangements for administrative cooperation has been amended by Decision No 2/2005 of the EC-Iceland Joint Committee of 22 December 2005. It is therefore necessary to provide explicitly that Protocol 3 as amended in 2005 is to apply.
(8)
Within the agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Community and the Republic of Iceland concerning additional trade preferences in agricultural products undertaken on the basis of Article 19 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area, attached to Council Decision 2007/138/EC, the bilateral trade in live horses was liberalised between the European Union and Iceland for unlimited quantities. Therefore the tariff quota laid down in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 499/96 for live horses is redundant.
(9)
For reasons of clarity and to take account of the amendments of the Combined Nomenclature Codes, laid down in Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, and of the TARIC subdivisions, it is appropriate to replace the complete Annex to Regulation (EC) No 499/96.
(10)
Regulation (EC) No 499/96 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(11)
In accordance with Decision 2010/674/EU the new tariff quotas for certain fish and fishery products have to apply from 1 March 2011. This Regulation should therefore apply from the same date.
(12)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: