THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code, and in particular Article 58(1) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
By Decision (EU) 2016/2369 (‘the Decision’), the Council authorised the signing, on behalf of the Union, of the Protocol of Accession (‘the Protocol’) to the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru (‘the Agreement’), of the other part, to take account of the accession of Ecuador to the Agreement and provided for the provisional application of the Protocol from 1 January 2017.
(2)
The Agreement stipulates that customs duties on imports into the Union of goods originating in Ecuador are to be reduced or eliminated in accordance with the tariff elimination schedule in Annex I to the Agreement. Annex I provides that, for certain goods originating in Ecuador, the reduction or elimination of customs duties is granted within tariff quotas.
(3)
The tariff quotas set out in subsection 3 to Section B of Appendix 1 of Annex I to the Agreement should be managed by the Commission on the basis of the chronological order of dates of acceptance of customs declarations for release for free circulation in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447.
(4)
In order to ensure the smooth application and management of the quota system granted under the Protocol, this Regulation should apply from the same date as that of the provisional application of the Protocol.
(5)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: