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 Agreement on partnership and cooperation establishing a partnership between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Russian Federation, of the other part^f1, hereinafter referred to as ‘the PCA’, entered into force on 1 December 1997.

Article 21(1) of the PCA provides that trade in certain steel products shall be governed by Title III of that Agreement, with the exception of Article 15 thereof, and by the provisions of an agreement on quantitative arrangements.

On 24 October 2005, the European Community and the Russian Federation concluded such an Agreement on trade in certain steel products^f2, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Agreement’.

It is necessary to provide the means to administer the terms of the Agreement within the Community, taking into account the experience gained from previous Agreements concerning a similar regime.

It is appropriate to classify the products in question on the basis of the Combined Nomenclature (CN) established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff^f3.

It is necessary to ensure that the origin of the products in question is checked and appropriate methods of administrative cooperation are set up to this end.

The effective application of the Agreement 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 granting of such Community import licences.

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.

In order to ensure that these quantitative limits are not exceeded, it is necessary to establish a management procedure 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.

The Agreement provides for a system of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Community with the aim of preventing circumvention by means of transhipment, rerouting or other means. A consultation procedure should be established under which an agreement can be reached with the country concerned on an equivalent adjustment to the relevant quantitative limit when it appears that the Agreement has been circumvented. The Russian Federation has agreed to take the necessary measures to ensure that any adjustments could be rapidly applied. In the absence of agreement within the time limit provided, the Community should, where there is clear evidence of circumvention, have the possibility to apply the equivalent adjustment.

From 1 January 2005 imports into the Community of products covered by this Regulation have been subjected to a licence pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 2267/2004 of 20 December 2004 on trade in certain steel products between the European Community and the Russian Federation^f4. The Agreement provides that those imports are to be counted against the limits established for 2005 in this Regulation.

For reasons of clarity it is therefore necessary to replace Regulation (EC) No 2267/2004 by this Regulation,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: