Considerations on COM(2023)125 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) 2020/2170 as regards the application of Union tariff rate quotas and other import quotas to certain products transferred to Northern Ireland

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dossier COM(2023)125 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) 2020/2170 as regards the application of Union tariff rate quotas and other import quotas to ...
document COM(2023)125 EN
date June 14, 2023
 
(1) Article 1 of Regulation (EU) 2020/2170 of the European Parliament and of the Council 4 provides that goods imported from outside the Union are eligible for treatment pursuant to Union import tariff rate quotas or other import quotas only if they are released for free circulation in the territories listed therein. That provision addresses the risks to the proper functioning of the Union’s internal market and the integrity of the Common Commercial Policy that would result from the possible circumvention of the Union’s tariff rate quotas or other import quotas. The territories set out in that provision do not include Northern Ireland.

(2) The Trade and Cooperation Agreement 5 (‘TCA’) between the United Kingdom and the European Union provides for the opening by the Union of quotas with regard to imports into the Union of certain products originating in the United Kingdom. In addition, the TCA confers upon the Union the right to introduce other tariff rate quotas or import quotas with regard to imports of goods originating in the United Kingdom under certain circumstances, including as part of the application of multilateral safeguard measures in accordance with the WTO Agreement. It is necessary, therefore, to clarify whether goods originating in the United Kingdom and released for free circulation in Northern Ireland are eligible for treatment under those tariff rate quotas or other import quotas.

(3) The United Kingdom is bound by the arrangements laid down in the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (the ‘Protocol’) to the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (‘the Withdrawal Agreement’). Therefore, the legal relationship between the Union and the United Kingdom in respect of goods originating in the United Kingdom and released for free circulation in Northern Ireland is fundamentally different from that between the Union and any other third country in respect of goods originating in that third country and released for free circulation in Northern Ireland.

(4) The United Kingdom has provided evidence showing that certain steel products originating in the United Kingdom that are currently subject to safeguard measures under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/159 6  (‘the products concerned’) have been transferred in significant quantities to Northern Ireland from other parts of the United Kingdom. In order to ensure the economic viability of these transfers and in view of the specific circumstances in Northern Ireland, it is appropriate to allow for the products concerned to benefit from the respective Union’s tariff rate quotas when they are released for free circulation in Northern Ireland.

(5) In order to limit the risk of circumvention of the Union’s tariff rate quotas applicable to the products concerned by imports of the same products originating in other countries, the products concerned should be consigned directly from other parts of the United Kingdom.

(6) Moreover, the United Kingdom has undertaken to take the necessary measures, in accordance with the Protocol, to ensure that the transfers of the products concerned using Union’s tariff rate quotas are timely counted against those quotas, in the same way as if those goods were imported into the Union.

(7) Regulation (EU) 2020/2170 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(8) Since the need for importation in Northern Ireland of the products concerned may vary over time, in order to adjust the list of products concerned the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of the products concerned. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making of 13 April 2016. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.

(9) By virtue of Article 5(3) and (4) of the Protocol in conjunction with Article 13(3) thereof, this Regulation also applies to and in the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland.

(10) In order to avoid any potential disruption in the transfers of the products concerned from other parts of the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland, this Regulation should enter into force as soon as possible.