Council Regulation (EU) 2015/2449
of 14 December 2015
amending Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 suspending the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain agricultural and industrial 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:
It is in the interest of the Union to suspend totally the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on 110 products that are not currently listed in Annex I to Council Regulation (EU) No 1387/20131.
It is no longer in the interest of the Union to maintain the suspension of autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on 41 products that are currently listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013. Those products should, therefore, be deleted from that Annex.
It is necessary to modify the product descriptions of 45 products, the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties of which have been suspended, currently listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 in order to take into account technical product developments and economic trends in the market, or to carry out linguistic adaptations. Moreover, in the light of upcoming changes in the Combined Nomenclature as of 1 January 2016, the CN codes for 22 products should be amended.
It is also necessary, in the interest of the Union, to amend the end date for the mandatory review of 148 products currently listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 in order to allow duty-free imports beyond that date. The autonomous Common Customs Tariff duty suspensions for those products have been reviewed and new revised dates should be set for their next mandatory review.
In order to allow appropriate statistical monitoring, the current Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 should be updated, taking into account the changes to the list of products in Annex I to that Regulation.
In the interest of clarity and rationality, the current Annexes I and II to Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 should be merged.
As a result of the merger of Annexes I and II to Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 and in the interest of a better management of the autonomous suspension scheme, certain provisions of that Regulation should be amended.
Regulation (EU) No 1387/2013 should therefore be amended accordingly.
Since the amendments pursuant to this Regulation should take effect from 1 January 2016, this Regulation should apply from that date.
However, in order to adequately ensure the benefit of the suspension with regard to the competitive capacity of the enterprises concerned by one product, the suspension relating to that product should apply from 1 January 2015,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: