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:

The Community is party to the WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) according to which that Agreement and all restrictions hereunder shall stand terminated on 1 January 2005 in conformity with the integration schedule laid down in Article 9 of the Agreement.

An a posteriori customs-based surveillance system is established in order to monitor effectively trends of imports of products liberalised.

Special provisions may be maintained beyond that date by virtue of the provisions of China's Protocol of Accession to the WTO. Within this context and in order to gather in good time the necessary information to carry out an effective monitoring of certain imports, it is appropriate to establish a prior surveillance of imports of Chinese origin by an automatic import licensing regime applicable for a period of up to 31 December 2005, although this requirement can be terminated earlier once the customs-based ex-post surveillance system to be set up is fully operational.

According to the ATC, importing countries are not obliged to accept shipments in excess of the restrictions notified; in accordance with Community legislation the date of shipment is therefore considered to be the determining date for charging against the relevant quota. Consequently, goods arriving in 2005 but shipped in 2004 have, during a transitional period in 2005, to be charged against the 2004 quotas and do therefore remain subject to the system of double checking.

It is in the interest of the business community to establish commercial certainty and predictability, and it is therefore appropriate to set a definitive date after which the setting-off, against 2004 quotas, of shipments arriving in 2005 will no longer be applicable. This terminal date should be 31 March 2005.

To comply with the ATC provisions on the elimination of quantitative restrictions on WTO members, Annex II to Regulation (EEC) No 3030/93^f1 should cover, from 2005 onwards, only those non-WTO members with which the Community has concluded bilateral textiles agreements.

The list of textiles and clothing products which are governed by the GATT rules and disciplines, contained in Annex II to Council Regulation (EC) No 3285/94 of 22 December 1994 on the common rules for imports and repealing Regulation (EC) No 518/94^f2, should be amended to include, as from 1 January 2005, the products to be integrated into the GATT.

It is desirable for this Regulation to enter into force on the day after that of its publication in order to allow operators to benefit from it as soon as possible,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: