8.1.2000 Official Journal of the European Communities L5/1 | (Acts whose publication is obligatory) COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 32/2000 of 17 December 1999 opening and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas bound in GATT and certain other Community tariff quotas and establishing detailed rules for adjusting the quotas, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1808/95 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 133 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas: 1) () O] L 176, 27.7.1995, Regulation (EC) No 1401/98 (O] L 188, 2.7.1998, p. 1). The Community has undertaken, within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), to open Community tariff quotas each year at reduced or zero duty for a certain number of products, subject to certain conditions; Council Regulation (EC) No 1808/95 of 24 July 1995 opening and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas bound in GATT and certain other Community tariff quotas for certain agricultural, industrial and fisheries products and establishing the detailed provisions for adapting these quotas ('), has been repeatedly and substantially amended; whereas now that further amendments are required it should be recast and simplified for the sake of clarity, in line with the Council Resolution of 25 October 1996 (%); This Regulation does not apply to tariff quotas for agri- cultural products bound in GATT, which are covered by Council Regulation (EC) No 3290/94 of 22 December 1994 on the adjustments and transitional arrangements required in the agriculture sector in order to implement the agreements concluded during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations (); Following the reductions in customs duties agreed within the framework of the GATT, certain products previously covered by Regulation (EC) No 180895 are now exempt from customs duties on import; they are therefore not included in this Regulation; p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Council () O] C 332, 7.11.1996, p. 1. () O] L 349, 31.12.1994, p. 105. () o] L 0] L 188, 2.7.1998, p. oj L 8, The Community has concluded an Agreement in the form of an exchange of letters with Canada providing for the opening of a 650 000 tonne tariff quota for newsprint (order number 09.0015), 600 000 tonnes of which, in accordance with Article XIII of the GATT, is reserved until 30 November of each year for products from Canada alone; the Agreement also provides for a mandatory 5% increase in the share of the quota reserved for imports from Canada in the event of that share being exhausted before the end of a given year; In accordance with the offer it made within the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) and alongside its scheme of generalised preferences, the European Community introduced tariff preferences in 1971 for jute and coconut-fibre products originating in certain developing countries; these preferences took the form of a gradual reduction of Common Customs Tariff duties and, from 1978 to 31 December 1994, the complete suspension of these duties; Since the entry into force of the new scheme of general- ised tariff preferences on 1 January 1995 the Community has, alongside the GATT, opened auto- nomous zero-duty Community tariff quotas for specific quantities of jute and coconut-fibre products until 31 December 1999 by Regulations (EC) Nos 764/96 (*) and 1401/98 (°); as the scheme of generalised preferences has been extended until 31 December 2001 by Regula- tion (EC) No 2820/98 (%), this quota arrangement should also be extended until 31 December 2001; In the context of its external relations the Community has given Switzerland an undertaking each year to open a zero-duty tariff quota running from 1 September to 31 104, 27.4.1996, p. 1. 1. 357, 30.12.1998, p. 1.