3. 6. 86 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 149/7 COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 1710/86 of 26 May 1986 opening, allocating and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for sweet, clear-fleshed cherries, marinated in alcohol and intended for the manufacture of chocolate products, falling within subheading ex 20.06 B I ¢) 2 bb) of the Common Customs Tariff THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 28 thereof, . Having regard to the draft Regulation submitted by the Commission, - Whereas the production of sweet, clear-fleshed cherries, marinated in alcohol and intended for the manufacture of chocolate products, is currently insufficient in the Community to meet the requirements of the user indus- tries in the Community ; whereas, consequently, Commu- nity supplies of products of this type depend to a considerable extent on imports from third countries; whereas it is in the Community’s interest to partially suspend the Common Customs Tariff duty for the products in question, within a Community tariff quota of an appropriate volume ; whereas, in order not to bring into question the development prospects of this produc- tion in the Community while ensuring an adequate supply to satisfy user industries, it is advisable to limit the benefits of tariff quotas solely to products which meet certain criteria as to presentation and use, to open the quota for the period 1 July to 31 December 1986, and to fix the volume of this quota at a level of 1 500 tonnes, corresponding to the needs for imports from third coun- tries during that period, and to fix the quota duty at 10 % ; Whereas, in particular, equal and continuous access to the quota should be ensured for all Community importers ,‘and the rate of duty for the tariff quota should be applied consistently to all imports until the quota is exhausted ; whereas, in the light of these principles, arrangements for the utilization of the tariff quota based on an allocation among Member States would seem to be consistent with the Community nature of the quota; whereas, to corre- spond as closely as possible to the actual trend in the market on the product in question, allocation of the quota should be in proportion to the requirements of the Member States as calculated by reference to statistics of imports from third countries during a representative reference period and to the economic outlook for the quota period in question ; Whereas, however, since the quota is an autonomous Community tariff quota intended to cover import needs arising in the Community, the quota volume may be allo- cated on the basis of the estimated temporary import needs from third countries of each of the Member States ; whereas these arrangements for allocation will also ensure the uniform application of the Common Customs Tariff ; Whereas, to take account of possible import trends for the product concerned, the quota volume should be divided into two tranches, the first being allocated between the Member States of the Community of Ten and the second held as a reserve to meet subsequent requirements of Member States which have used up their initial shares as well as those of the new Member States ; whereas, to give importers of the Member States some degree of certainty, the first tranche of the tariff quota should be fixed at a relatively high level, which in this case could be 1 330 tonnes ; Whereas the initial shares of the Member States may be used up at different rates ; whereas, to avoid disruption of supplies on this account, any Member State which has almost entirely used up its initial share should draw an additional share from the reserve ; whereas, each time its additional share is almost entirely used up, a Member State should draw a further share and so on as many times as the reserve allows; whereas the initial and additional shares should be valid until the end of the quota period ; whereas this form of administration requires close collaboration between the Member States and the Commission, which latter must be in a position to keep account of the extent to which the quota has been used up and to inform the Member States accordingly ; Whereas, if at a given date in the quota period a consider- able quantity of a Member State’s initial share remains unused, it is essential that that Member State should return a significant proportion to the reserve, in order to prevent a part of the Community quota remaining unused in one Member State while it could be used in others ; Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented by the Benelux Economic Union, any measure concerning the administration of the shares allocated to that economic union may be carried out by any one of its members,