ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL LAYING DOWN THE TRADE ARRANGEMENTS FOR CERTAIN FISH AND FISHERY PRODUCTS TO THE EUROPE AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES AND THEIR MEMBER STATES, OF THE ONE PART, AND THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA, OF THE OTHER PART

THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY, hereinafter referred to as “the Community”,

of the one part, and

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA,

of the other part,

WHEREAS the Europe Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Latvia, of the other part, hereinafter referred to as “the Europe Agreement”, was signed in Brussels on 12 June 1995 and entered into force on 1 February 1998,

WHEREAS technical negotiations based on Articles 20(4) and 23 of the Europe Agreement have been carried out and successfully concluded between the Community and the Republic of Latvia to agree on reciprocal tariff concessions in the fisheries sector,

WHEREAS the negotiated concessions in the fisheries sector shall affect the bilateral concessions granted under the Europe Agreement, which should, therefore, be amended by means of a Protocol adjusting the trade aspects of that Agreement,

WHEREAS the Community and the Republic of Latvia also agreed on an administratively simple procedure for implementing the negotiated tariff concessions as soon as possible on a gradual basis,

HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

From the date of entry into force of this Protocol for fish and fishery products as defined in Article 1 of Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 both Parties shall apply full free trade for all the products covered by Annex XII and Annex XIII of the Europe Agreement, and other concessions for fish and fishery products if otherwise granted. From the date of entry into force of this Protocol, both Parties shall apply a one third reduction of the tariff duties applied by the Community and the Republic of Latvia respectively for all the remaining fish and fishery products.

One year after the date of entry into force of this Protocol, both Parties shall apply a further one third reduction of the tariff duties as they were at the time of the entry into force of this Protocol.

Three years after the date of entry into force of this Protocol, or if commonly agreed earlier, full free trade in all fish and fishery products shall be applied. Any such agreement on earlier application of full free trade in all fish and fishery products shall be implemented in accordance with Article 4.

Article 2

The reductions referred to in Article 1 shall be calculated using common mathematical principles taking into account that:

(a) all the figures less than 50 (included) after the decimal point shall be rounded down to the nearest whole number;

(b) all the figures more than 50 after the decimal point shall be rounded up to the nearest whole number;

(c) all the tariffs below 2% shall automatically be fixed at 0% level by both Parties.

The Parties will exchange information on those cases where the above principles apply.

Article 3

This Protocol shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the date on which the Parties have notified each other of the completion of the internal procedures necessary for that purpose.

Article 4

This Protocol may be amended by decision of the Association Council.