Introductory text

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 133 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Whereas:

On 9 July 2002, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the Government of the Russian Federation concluded an Agreement on trade in certain steel products^f1 (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement). The necessary implementing measures have been adopted by Commission Decision 2002/602/ECSC of 8 July 2002 on administering certain restrictions on imports of certain steel products from the Russian Federation^f2. Following the expiry of the ECSC Treaty, the European Community took over all rights and obligations under the Agreement.

Commission Decision 2002/602/ECSC sets quantitative limits on the imports into the Community.

Given the important increase in the demand worldwide for certain steel products and the ensuing comparable difficulty for some Community users to source those steel products in the Community market, it is necessary to authorise more imports into the Community than originally agreed in the Agreement. The steel products in question (hot-rolled coils for re-rolling) are classified under TARIC codes 7208 37 00 10, 7208 38 00 10 and 7208 39 00 10.

It is important that the additional quantities be available as soon as possible. The renegotiation of the Agreement and the subsequent implementation of it as amended would require too much time. It is therefore preferable to recur to an autonomous measure.

The completion of the internal market requires that the formalities to be accomplished by Community importers be identical wherever the goods may be cleared.

Products placed in a free zone or imported under the arrangements governing customs warehouses, temporary importation or inward processing (suspension system) should not be counted against the limits established for the products in question.

The effective application of this Regulation requires the introduction of a requirement of a Community import licence for the entry into free circulation in the Community of the products in question together with a system for administering the grant of such Community import licences.

In order to ensure that the quantitative limits established by this Regulation are not exceeded, a procedure should be followed whereby the competent authorities of the Member States will not issue import licences before obtaining prior confirmation from the Commission that appropriate amounts remain available within the quantitative limit in question,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: