Common rules for imports from certain third countries. Recast

PURPOSE: codification of Council Regulation (EC) No 625/2009 of 17 July 2009 on common rules for imports from certain third countries.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2015/755 of the European Parliament and of the Council on common rules for imports from certain third countries.

CONTENT: the Regulation recasts Council Regulation (EC) No 625/2009. It applies to imports of products originating in the third countries referred to in Annex I (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) with the exception of textile products covered by a separate Regulation. Imports into the Union of these products shall take place freely and accordingly shall not be subject to any quantitative restrictions.

The Regulation introduced:

• an information and consultation procedure of the Union to inform the Commission, by the Member States, when the trends in imports appear to call for surveillance or safeguard measures;
• a Union investigation procedure: 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. Time limits are set 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;
• the Union's surveillance measures on certain imports on the Commission’s initiative or at the request of a Member State, where the Union’s interests so require. However, such measures shall not prevent the release for free circulation of products already on their way to the Union provided that the destination of such products cannot be changed and that those products which, may be put into free circulation only on production of a surveillance document are in fact accompanied by such a document;
• safeguard measures where a product is imported into the Union in such greatly increased quantities or on such terms or conditions as to cause, or threaten to cause, serious injury to Union producers of like or directly competing products.

Lastly, Armenia, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam have become members of the WTO and therefore have been deleted from Annex I of the Regulation.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 8.6.2015.

DELEGATED ACTS: the Commission may adopt delegated acts in order to remove countries from the list of third countries contained in Annex I when they become members of the WTO. The power to adopt such acts is conferred on the Commission for a period of five years (tacitly extended) from 20 February 2014. The European Parliament or the Council may object to a delegated act within two months from the date of notification (this period may be extended by two months). If the European Parliament or the Council objects to the delegated act, it shall not enter into force.