Decreto n.º 35/87

TEXTO :

Decreto do Governo n.º 35/87

de 22 de Dezembro

O Governo decreta, nos termos da alínea c) do n.º 1 do artigo 200.º da Constituição, o seguinte:

Artigo único. É aprovado para adesão o Acordo Internacional da Juta e Produtos da Juta, feito em Genebra em 1 de Outubro de 1982, cujo texto original em inglês e a tradução portuguesa vão anexos ao presente decreto.

Visto e aprovado em Conselho de Ministros de 13 de Novembro de 1987. - Aníbal António Cavaco Silva - João de Deus Rogado Salvador Pinheiro - Joaquim Martins Ferreira do Amaral.

Assinado em 3 de Dezembro de 1987.

Publique-se.

O Presidente da República, MÁRIO SOARES.

Referendado em 7 de Dezembro de 1987.

O Primeiro-Ministro, Aníbal António Cavaco Silva.

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT ON JUTE AND JUTE PRODUCTS, 1982

PREAMBLE

The Parties to this Agreement:

Recalling the Declaration and the Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order (ver nota 1),

Recalling resolutions 93 (IV) and 124 (V) on the Integrated Programme for Commodities adopted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development at its fourth and fifth sessions,

Recalling further the Substantial New Programme of Action for the 1980s for the Least Developed Countries, and in particular paragraph 82 thereof (ver nota 2),

Recognizing the importance of jute and jute products to the economies of many developing exporting countries,

Considering that close international co-operation in finding solutions to the problems facing this commodity will further the economic development of the exporting countries and strengthen economic co-operation between exporting and importing countries,

have agreed as follows:

(nota 1) General Assembly resolutions 3201(S-VI) and 3202 (S-VI) of 1 May 1974.

(nota 2) See Report of the United Nations Conference of the Least Developed Countries (United Nations Publication, Sales no. E.82.1.8), part one, sect. A.

CHAPTER I

Objectives

Article 1

Objectives

1 - For the benefit of both exporting and importing members, and with a view to achieving the relevant objectives adopted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in its resolutions 93 (IV) and 124 (V) on the Integrated Programme for Commodities and taking account of its resolution 98 (IV), the objectives of the International Agreement on Jute and Jute Products, 1982 (hereinafter referred to as «this Agreement»), shall be:

2 - The objectives referred to in paragraph 1 of this article should be met in particular by means of:

CHAPTER II

Definitions

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Agreement:

1) «Jute» means raw jute, kenaf and other allied fibres, including Urena lobata, Abutilon avicennae and Cephalonema polyandrum;

2) «Jute products» means products made wholly or almost wholly of jute, or products whose largest component by weight is jute;

3) «Member» means a Government or an intergovernmental organization as provided for in article 5 which has consented to be bound by this Agreement provisionally or definitively;

4) «Exporting member» means a member whose exports of jute and jute products exceed its imports of jute and jute products and which has declared itself to be an exporting member;

5) «Importing Member» means a member whose imports of jute and jute products exceed its exports of jute and jute products and which has declared itself to be an importing member;

6) «Organization» means the International Jute Organization established in accordance with article 3;

7) «Council» means the International Jute Council established in accordance with article 6;

8) «Special vote» means a vote requiring at least two thirds of the votes cast by exporting members present and voting and at least two thirds of the votes cast by importing members present and voting, counted separately, on condition that these votes are cast by a majority of exporting members and by at least four importing members present and voting;

9) «Simple distributed majority vote» means a vote requiring more than half of the total votes of exporting members present and voting and more than half of the total votes of the importing members present and voting counted separately. The votes required for exporting members must be cast by a majority of exporting members present and voting;

10) «Financial year» means the period from 1 July to 30 June inclusive;

11) «Jute year» means the period from 1 July to 30 June inclusive;

12) «Exports of jute» or «exports of jute products» means any jute or jute products which leave the customs territory of any member; and «imports of jute» or «imports of jute products» means any jute or jute products which enter the customs territory of any member, provided that, for the purposes of these definitions, customs territory shall, in the case of a member which comprises move than one customs territory, be deemed to refer to the combined customs territories of that member; and

13) «Freely usable currencies» means the Deutsche mark, the French franc, the Japanese yen, the pound sterling, the United States dollar and any other currency which has been designated from time to time by a competent international monetary organization as being in fact widely used to make payments for international transactions and widely traded in the principal exchange markets.

CHAPTER III

Organization and administration

Article 3

Establishment, headquarters and structure of the International Jute Organization

1 - The International Jute Organization is hereby established to administer the provisions and supervise the operation of this Agreement.

2 - The Organization shall function through the International Jute Council and the Committee on Projects as permanent bodies, and the Executive Director and the staff. The Council may, by special vote, establish for specific purposes committees and working groups with specified terms of reference.

3 - The headquarters of the Organization shall be in Dacca, Bangladesh.

4 - The headquarters of the Organization shall at all times be located in the territory of a member.

Article 4

Membership in the Organization

1 - There shall be two categories of membership in the Organization, namely:

2 - A member may change its category of membership on such conditions as the Council shall establish.

Article 5

Membership by intergovernmental organizations

1 - Any reference in this Agreement to «Governments» shall be construed as including the European Economic Community and any other intergovernmental organization having responsibilities in respect of the negotiation, conclusion and application of international agreements, in particular commodity agreements. Accordingly, any reference in this Agreement to signature, ratification, acceptance or approval, or to notification of provisional application, or to accession shall, in the case of such intergovernmental organizations be construed as including a reference to signature, ratification, acceptance or approval, or to notification of provisional application, or to accession, by such intergovernmental organizations.

2 - In the case of voting on matters within their competence, such intergovernmental organizations shall vote with a number of votes equal to the total number of votes attributable to their member States in accordance with article 10. In such cases, the member States of such intergovernmental organizations shall not be entitled to exercise their individual voting rights.

CHAPTER IV

International Jute Council

Article 6

Composition of the International Jute Council

1 - The highest authority of the Organization shall be the International Jute Council, which shall consist of all the members of the Organization.

2 - Each member shall be represented in the Council by one delegate, and may designate alternates and advisers to attend sessions of the Council.

3 - An alternate delegate shall be empowered to act and vote on behalf of the delegate during the latter's absence or in special circumstances.

Article 7

Powers and functions of the Council

1 - The Council shall exercise all such powers and perform or arrange for the performance of all such functions as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this Agreement.

2 - The Council shall, by special vote, adopt such rules and regulations as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this Agreement and are consistent therewith, including its own rules of procedure and the financial and staff regulations of the Organization. Such financial rules and regulations shall govern, inter alia, the receipt and expenditure of funds under the Administrative and Special Accounts. The Council may, in its rules of procedure, provide for a procedure whereby it may, without meeting, decide specific questions.

3 - The Council shall keep such records as are required for the performance of its functions under this Agreement.

Article 8

Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Council

1 - The Council shall elect for each jute year a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman, who shall not be paid by the Organization.

2 - The Chairman and the Vice-Chairman shall be elected, one from among the representatives of exporting members and the other from among the representatives of importing members. These offices shall alternate each year between the two categories of members, provided, however, that this shall not prohibit the reelection of either or both, under exceptional circumstances, by special vote of the Council.

3 - In the temporary absence of the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman shall act in his place. In the temporary absence of both the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman or the permanent absence of one or both of them, the Council may elect new officers from among the representatives of the exporting members and/or from among the representatives of the importing members, as the case may be, on a temporary or permanent basis.

Article 9

Sessions of the Council

1 - As a general rule, the Council shall hold one regular session in each half of the jute year.

2 - The Council shall meet in special session whenever it so decides or at the request of:

3 - Sessions of the Council shall be held at the headquarters of the Organization unless the Council, by special vote, decides otherwise. If on the invitation of any member the Council meets elsewhere than at the headquarters of the Organization, that member shall pay the additional cost of holding the meeting away from headquarters.

4 - Notice of any session and the agenda for the session shall be communicated to members by the Executive Director at least 30 days in advance, except in cases of emergency when notice shall be communicated at least seven days in advance.

Article 10

Distribution of votes

1 - The exporting members shall together hold 1,000 votes and the importing members shall together hold 1,000 votes.

2 - The votes of the exporting members shall be distributed as follows: 150 votes shall be divided equally among all exporting members to the nearest whole vote for each member; the remaining votes shall be distributed in proportion to the average volume of their net exports of jute and jute products during the preceding three jute years, provided that the maximum number of votes of any exporting member shall note exceed 450. The surplus votes in excess of the maximum shall be distributed to all exporting members having less than 250 votes individually, in proportion to their trade shares.

3 - The votes of importing members shall be distributed as follows: each importing member shall have up to five initial votes provided that the total of initial votes shall not exceed 125. The remaining votes shall be distributed in proportion to the annual average of the volume of their respective net imports of jute and jute products during the three-year period commencing four calendar years prior to the distribution of votes.

4 - The Council shall distribute the votes for each financial year at the beginning of the first session of that year in accordance with the provisions of this article. Such distribution shall remain in effect for the rest of that year, except as provided for in paragraph 5 of this article.

5 - Whenever the membership of the Organization changes or when any member has its voting rights suspended or restored under any provision of this Agreement, the Council shall redistribute the votes within the affected category or categories of members in accordance with the provisions of this article. The Council shall decide the date on which the redistribution of votes shall become effective.

6 - There shall be no fractional votes.

7 - In rounding to the nearest whole vote, any fraction less than 0.5 shall be rounded downward and any fraction greater than or equal to 0.5 shall be rounded upward.

Article 11

Voting procedure of the Council

1 - Each member shall be entitled to cast the number of votes it holds and no member shall be entitled to divide its votes. A member may, however, cast differently from such votes an votes which it is authorized to cast under paragraph 2 of this article.

2 - By written notification to the Chairman of the Council, any exporting member may authorize any other exporting member, and any importing member may authorize any other importing member, to represent its interests and to cast its votes at any meeting or session of the Council.

3 - A member authorized by another member to cast the votes held by the authorizing member under article 10 shall cast such votes in accordance with the instructions of the authorizing member.

4 - When abstaining, a member shall be deemed not to have cast its votes.

Article 12

Decisions and recommendations of the Council

1 - The Council shall endeavour to take all decisions, and make all recommendations, by consensus. If a consensus is not arrived at, all decisions of the Council shall be taken, and all recommendations shall be made, by a simple distributed majority vote, unless this Agreement provides for a special vote.

2 - Where a member avails itself of the provisions of article 11, paragraph 2, and its votes are cast at a meeting of the Council, such member shall, for the purposes of paragraph 1 of this article, be considered as present and voting.

3 - All decisions and recommendations of the Council shall be consistent with the provisions of this Agreement.

Article 13

Quorum for the Council

1 - The quorum for any meeting of the Council shall be the presence of a majority of exporting members and a majority of importing members, provided that such members hold at least two thirds of the total votes in their respective categories.

2 - If there is no quorum in accordance with paragraph 1 of this article on the day fixed for the meeting and on the following day, the quorum on the third day and thereafter shall be the presence of a majority of exporting members and a majority of importing members, provided that such members hold a majority of the total votes in their respective categories.

3 - Representation in accordance with article 11, paragraph 2, shall be considered as presence.

Article 14

Co-operation with other organizations

1 - The Organization shall, to the maximum extent possible, rely upon and fully utilize the facilities, services and expertise of organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/GATT (ITC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In the event that their facilities, services and expertise are considered by the Council to be deficient or inadequate for the effective functioning of the Organization, the Council shall decide, where circumstances so warrant, to take the necessary action to have the work carried out effectively, if necessary by the Organization on its own.