The allocation method set out in Article 4 of this Regulation shall apply to the entire first quota period of application of this Regulation. During this quota period, the provisions of Chapter 6 shall not apply.

Articles 17 to 19 shall apply during the first three quota periods of application of this Regulation.

The reference period provided for in Article 5(4) of the Protocol shall be, at the choice of the importer, year 2004, year 2007, or the combination of both years.

Importers claiming status of traditional importer shall specify which of the three options provided for in paragraph 1 is retained for the calculation of their ceilings, in accordance with Article 6, not later than 20 calendar days after the entry into force of this Regulation.

The reference period retained by each importer in accordance with paragraph 2 shall apply to all the first three quota periods of application of this Regulation.

Importers claiming status of traditional importer shall inform the Licence Office(s) of the Member State(s) from which they intend to request quota authorisations, not later than 20 calendar days after the entry into force of this Regulation, of their actual imports of covered products into that Member State(s) during the reference period retained in accordance with Article 17(2). In order to substantiate such actual import claims, the importer shall provide the Licence Office with a copy of the customs declarations of the imports concerned.

The Licence Offices shall provide the Commission, not later than 35 calendar days after the entry into force of this Regulation, with a summary of actual imports of covered products notified to them in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article. Such summary shall be submitted in an electronic spreadsheet format, in conformity with the template set out in Annex V.

Where a single year is retained pursuant to Article 17(2), the variable Ī_i referred to in Article 6(2) shall represent the importer’s actual imports of the product group concerned during such year.

Where the combination of both 2004 and 2007 is retained pursuant to Article 17(2), the variable Ī_i referred to in Article 6(2) shall represent the average of the importer’s actual imports of the product group concerned in years 2004 and 2007, calculated as follows:

[(Actual imports in 2004) + (Actual imports in 2007)]/2.

The Commission shall inform the Licence Offices of the ceilings resulting from the calculations made according to Article 6(2) not later than 65 calendar days after the entry into force of this Regulation.

In case the ceilings referred to in Article 6 have not been calculated by the time the Agreement and the Protocol are applied on a provisional basis, the tariff quotas per product group shall be allocated to all importers in accordance with the allocation procedure referred to in Article 3(b) until the Commission has notified the Licence Offices that the ceilings have been established and that the allocation procedure referred to in Article 3(b) has ended. For the purposes of this paragraph, each importer shall be granted a maximum of 2,5 % of the tariff quota for each product group.