Introductory text

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 207(2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national Parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee^f1,

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure^f2,

Whereas:

Council Regulation (EC) No 625/2009^f3 has been substantially amended^f4. Since further amendments are to be made, that Regulation should be recast in the interests of clarity.

The common commercial policy should be based on uniform principles.

Uniformity in the rules for imports should be assured by laying down, as far as possible given the particular features of the economic system in the third countries in question, provisions similar to those applied under the common rules for other third countries.

The common rules applicable to imports also apply to coal and steel products, without prejudice to any measures implementing an agreement relating specifically to such products.

The liberalisation of imports, namely the absence of any quantitative restrictions, should therefore form the starting point for the Union rules.

In the case of some products, the Commission should examine import terms and conditions, import trends, the various aspects of the economic and commercial situation, and the measures, if any, to be taken.

For those products, it may become apparent that there should be Union surveillance over certain of these imports.

It is for the Commission to adopt the safeguard measures required by the interests of the Union with due regard for existing international obligations.

Surveillance or safeguard measures confined to one or more regions of the Union may prove more suitable than measures applying to the whole Union. However, such measures should be authorised only exceptionally and where no alternative exists. It is necessary to ensure that such measures are temporary and cause the minimum of disruption to the operation of the internal market.

If Union surveillance is applied, release for free circulation of the products concerned should be made subject to presentation of a surveillance document meeting uniform criteria. That document should, on simple application by the importer, be issued by the authorities of the Member States within a certain period but without the importer thereby acquiring any right to import. The surveillance document should therefore be valid only during such period as the import rules remain unchanged.

In the interests of good administrative management and in order to assist Union operators, the content and layout of the surveillance document should be aligned as far as possible with the common import licence forms provided for in Commission Regulation (EC) No 738/94^f5, Commission Regulation (EC) No 3168/94^f6, and Commission Regulation (EC) No 3169/94^f7, bearing in mind the technical characteristics of the surveillance document.

It is in the interests of the Union that the Member States and the Commission should make as full as possible an exchange of information resulting from Union surveillance.

It is necessary to adopt precise criteria for assessing possible injury and to introduce an investigation while still allowing the Commission to introduce appropriate measures in urgent cases.

To that end, detailed provisions should be laid down on the opening of investigations, on the checks and inspections required, on the hearing of those concerned, the treatment of information obtained and the criteria for assessing injury.

The provisions on investigations laid down in this Regulation are without prejudice to Union or national rules concerning professional secrecy.

It is also necessary to set time limits for the initiation of investigations and for determinations as to whether, or not, measures are appropriate, with a view to ensuring that such determinations are made quickly, in order to increase legal certainty for the economic operators concerned.

In the interests of uniformity in rules for imports, the formalities to be carried out by importers should be simple and identical regardless of the place where the goods clear customs. It is therefore desirable to provide that any formalities should be carried out using forms corresponding to the specimen annexed to this Regulation.

Surveillance documents issued in connection with Union surveillance measures should be valid throughout the Union, irrespective of the Member State of issue.

The textile products falling under Council Regulation (EC) No 517/94^f8 are subject to specific treatment at Union and international levels. They should therefore be completely excluded from the scope of this Regulation.

The power to amend the list of third countries in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 625/2009 was included in Council Regulation (EC) No 427/2003^f9. Since the provisions of Title I of Regulation (EC) No 427/2003 on the transitional product-specific safeguard mechanism expired on 11 December 2013 and the provisions of Title II of that Regulation are now obsolete, it is appropriate, in the interest of coherence, clarity and rationality, to incorporate Articles 14a and 14b of that Regulation into this Regulation. Regulation (EC) No 427/2003 should therefore be repealed.

The Commission should be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) for the purpose of amending Annex I to this Regulation, in order to remove countries from the list of third countries contained in that Annex when they become members of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The implementation of this Regulation requires uniform conditions for adopting provisional and definitive safeguard measures, and for the imposition of prior surveillance measures. Those measures should be adopted by the Commission in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council^f10.

The advisory procedure should be used for the adoption of surveillance and provisional measures given the effects of such measures and their sequential logic in relation to the adoption of definitive safeguard measures. Where a delay in the imposition of measures would cause damage which would be difficult to repair, it is necessary to allow the Commission to adopt immediately applicable provisional measures.

When Regulation (EC) No 625/2009 was amended, the second subparagraph of Article 18(2) was erroneously deleted. That provision should be reinserted.

As Armenia, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam have become members of the WTO, those third countries need to be deleted from Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 625/2009 by means of a Commission delegated act. In the interest of clarity and rationality, they are not included in the list of third countries now set out in Annex I to this Regulation,

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