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While these are taking place the EEC has the power to require the exporting country to suspend the issue of export certificates. In other words this will reduce the danger of forestalling during protracted negotiations, And if no agreement on quota levels has been reached within a month of the start of consultations the EEC will have the right to introduce a quota at the level of imports reached at the time of the request for consultations.
The trigger.levels in question are
Group I
0.2%
Group II
1%
1.2%
1.5%
according to the size of the supplier
Other
3%
Groups
4%
5%
According to the size of the
supplier
The agreements also provide for new quotas to be introduced for particular Member States if imports in particular Member States exceed their share (under the burden sharing formula) of the EEC percentages given above. For example, if UK imports of a Group II product not already under quota exceed 23.5% (this being our theoretical share of the EEC total) of say 1.5% of EEC imports in the previous year, then we would become entitled to a quota.
In addition, to deal with the problem of cumulative disruption arising from suppliers with whom there are no bilateral agreements, the Council of Ministers decided on 20 December that they should be subject to a similar system of control as that applied under the bilateral agreements. In particular it was agreed that the Community should take immediate action to restrain imports of particular products from these suppliers where necessary in accordance with the same trigger criteria as in the bilateral agreements.
(v) Flexibility provisions
These are tighter than under the previous agreements. First, underused 1977 quotas cannot be "carried over" into 1978 quota limits under the new agreements. Secondly, there will be less flexibility in the future, eg in transferring quantities between particular products under quota and between quota years. As far as Group I is concerned, a limited amount of transfer (or "swing") will be allowed between Categories 1, 2 and 3 (but any such transfers will not be allowed to increase the cotton
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