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.
