Proposal for a Council Regulation suspending the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain agricultural and industrial products and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1344/2011

The Commission proposes a new base regulation on autonomous tariff suspensions. This became necessary as Council Regulation (EU) 1344/2011 of 19 December 2011 has been amended four times and fishery products are no longer covered by that Regulation. Therefore, in the interests of transparency, it is proposed to repeal the said Regulation and replace it by the current proposal.

Production in the Union of the products specified in this regulation does not exist or is inadequate and, therefore, by allowing enterprises to obtain supplies at a lower cost for a certain period, it would become possible to stimulate economic activity within the Union, to improve the competitive capacity of these enterprises and, in particular, to enable the latter to maintain or create employment, modernise their structures, etc.

In this context, it should be pointed out that goods imported under the tariff suspension arrangements enjoy freedom of movement throughout the Union; consequently, once a tarif suspension is granted, any operator in any Member State is eligible to benefit from it.

Since autonomous tariff suspensions constitute an exception to the general rule represented by the Common Customs Tariff, they must, like all derogations, be surveilled and reviewed systematically on a regular basis (at least every five years). This should not exclude the termination of certain measures earlier if it is no longer in the Union's interest to maintain suspension of autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties or because of technical product developments and economic trends on the market justify it or due to changed circumstances. Where the Commission considers, on the basis of the review, that a suspension for a certain product is to be changed or terminated, it will submit to the Council a proposal to amend the list set out in Annex I accordingly.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)776: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:776:FIN

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