THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007, and in particular Article 178 in conjunction with Article 180 thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Commission Regulation (EU) No 642/2010 lays down rules on the calculation and fixing of the import duty on certain products. For common wheat, durum wheat and maize, the import duty may depend on the difference between the actual quality of the product imported and the quality of the product entered on the import licence. To this end, qualitative analysis based on representative samples are carried out by the customs office and additional securities are provided for.
(2)
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1237 provides for the cases where an import licence is required. An import licence is no longer required for products of the cereal sector when they are declared for release for free circulation under conditions other than tariff rate quotas. As a consequence, the requirement to lodge a security for the import licence for the products referred to in Article 12(a) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1342/2003 has been deleted.
(3)
Article 2(4) of Regulation (EU) No 642/2010 provides for an import duty reduction for some ports of unloading, for which the customs authorities are to issue a certificate in accordance with the model given in Annex I to that Regulation. That model still includes a reference to the import licence number as additional information regarding the import licence itself. Moreover, in order to avoid any confusion, it is appropriate to replace the term ‘certificate’ by ‘document’.
(4)
Article 3(4) and Article 6(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) No 642/2010 provide for an additional security, except where the import licence is accompanied by certain certificates of conformity. In those Articles and in Article 7(4), references to ‘import licence’ or to the security related thereto should be deleted or be replaced by references to the declaration of release for free circulation. At the same time, the term ‘additional security’ should be replaced by a more appropriate term.
(5)
In the interest of clarity and legal certainty, it is appropriate to replace references to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92, Regulation (EC) No 450/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 by references to Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447.
(6)
Regulation (EU) No 642/2010 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(7)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: