Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Central America on the other

CHAPTER I

SAFEGUARD PROVISIONS

Article 1

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

(a) ‘product’ means a good originating in the Union or in a Central American country. A product subject to an investigation may cover one or several tariff lines or a sub-segment thereof depending on the specific market circumstances, or any product segmentation commonly applied in the Union industry;

(b) ‘interested parties’ means parties affected by the imports of the product in question;

(c) ‘Union industry’ means the Union producers as a whole of the like or directly competitive products, operating within the territory of the Union, Union producers whose collective output of the like or directly competitive products constitutes a major proportion of the total Union production of those products, or, where a like or a directly competitive product is only one of several products that are made by the Union producers, the specific operations that are involved in the production of the like or directly competitive product;

(d) ‘serious injury’ means a significant overall impairment;

(e) ‘threat of serious injury’ means serious injury that is clearly imminent;

(f) ‘serious deterioration’ means significant disturbances in a sector or in Union industry;

(g) ‘threat of serious deterioration’ means significant disturbances that are clearly imminent;

(h) ‘transitional period’ means ten years from the date of application of the Agreement, for a product for which the Schedule of the EU Party, as set out in Annex I (Elimination of Customs Duties) to the Agreement (‘Tariff Elimination Schedule’) provides for a tariff elimination period of less than ten years, or the tariff elimination period plus three years for a product for which the Tariff Elimination Schedule provides for a tariff elimination period of ten or more years;

(i) ‘Central American country’ means Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua or Panama.

A determination of the existence of a threat of serious injury within the meaning of point (e) of the first paragraph shall be based on verifiable facts and not merely on an allegation, a conjecture or a remote possibility. In order to determine the existence of a threat of serious injury, forecasts, estimations and analyses made on the basis of factors referred to in Article 5(5), shall, inter alia, be taken into account.

Article 2

Principles

A safeguard measure may take one of the following forms:

(a) a suspension of a further reduction of the rate of customs duty on the product concerned provided for in the Tariff Elimination Schedule;

(b) an increase in the rate of customs duty on the product concerned to a level which does not exceed the lesser of: — the most-favoured-nation (‘MFN’) applied rate of customs duty on the product in effect at the time the measure is taken; or — the MFN applied rate of customs duty on the product in effect on the day immediately preceding the date of entry into force of the Agreement.

Article 3

Monitoring

Article 4

Initiation of proceedings

The notice referred to in paragraph 6 shall:

(a) give a summary of the information received, and require that all relevant information be communicated to the Commission;

(b) state the period within which interested parties may make known their views in writing and submit information, if such views and information are to be taken into account during the proceeding;

(c) state the period within which interested parties may apply to be heard orally by the Commission in accordance with Article 5(9).

Article 5

Investigations

The Commission shall hear interested parties on further occasions if there are special reasons therefor.

Article 6

Prior surveillance measures

The Commission may adopt prior surveillance measures in regard to imports from a Central American country where:

(a) the trend in imports of a product is such that it could lead to one of the situations referred to in Articles 2 and 4; or

(b) there is a surge of imports of bananas concentrated in one or several Member States, or in one or several of the Union's outermost regions.

Article 7

Imposition of provisional safeguard measures

The Commission shall adopt provisional safeguard measures in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 14(2). In cases of imperative grounds of urgency, including the case referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, the Commission shall adopt immediately applicable provisional safeguard measures in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 14(4).

Article 8

Termination of investigations and proceedings without measures

Article 9

Imposition of definitive safeguard measures

Article 10

Duration and review of safeguard measures

Article 11

Outermost regions of the Union

Where any product originating in a Central American country is being imported in such increased quantities and under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause serious deterioration in the economic situation of one or several of the Union's outermost regions, as referred to in Article 349 TFEU, a safeguard measure may be imposed, in accordance with this Chapter.

Article 12

Confidentiality

Article 13

Report

Article 14

Committee procedure

CHAPTER II

STABILISATION MECHANISM FOR BANANAS

Article 15

Stabilisation mechanism for bananas

CHAPTER III

IMPLEMENTING RULES

Article 16

Implementing rules

The applicable provision for the purposes of adopting the necessary implementing rules for the application of the rules contained in Appendix 2A of Annex II (Concerning the definition of the concept of ‘originating products’ and methods of administrative co-operation) and Appendix 2 of Annex I (Elimination of Customs Duties) to the Agreement shall be Article 247a of Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92.

CHAPTER IV

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 17

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from the date of application of the Agreement as provided for in Article 353 thereof. A notice shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union specifying the date of application of the Agreement.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX

COMMISSION STATEMENT

The Commission welcomes the first reading agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Central America on the other (²).

As envisaged in Regulation (EU) No 20/2013, the Commission will submit an annual report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of Part IV of the Agreement and will be ready to discuss with the responsible committee of the European Parliament any issues arising from the implementation of Part IV of the Agreement.

The Commission will attach particular importance to the effective implementation of commitments on trade and sustainable development in the Agreement, taking into account the specific information provided by the relevant monitoring bodies of the fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organisation and the multilateral environmental agreements listed in Title VIII of Part IV of the Agreement. In this context, the Commission will also seek the views of the relevant civil society advisory groups.

After the expiry of the Banana Stabilisation Mechanism on 31 December 2019, the Commission will assess the situation of the Union market for bananas and the state of Union banana producers. The Commission will report its findings to the European Parliament and the Council and would include a preliminary assessment of the functioning of the ‘Programme d'Options Spécifiques à l'Éloignement et l'Insularité’ (POSEI) in preserving the banana production in the Union.

JOINT DECLARATION

The European Parliament and the Commission agree on the importance of close cooperation in monitoring the implementation of Part IV of the Agreement and Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Central America on the other (³). To that end they agree on the following:

— Upon request by the responsible committee of the European Parliament, the Commission shall report to it on any specific concerns relating to the implementation by Central American countries of their commitments on trade and sustainable development.

— If the European Parliament adopts a recommendation to initiate a safeguard investigation, the Commission will carefully examine whether the conditions under Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 for ex-officio initiation are fulfilled. If the Commission considers that the conditions are not fulfilled, it will present a report to the responsible committee of the European Parliament including an explanation of all the factors relevant to the initiation of such an investigation.