Brussels, 30/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 30 November the European Commission proposed an amendment to the import system of New Zealand butter into the EU. This complies with the ruling of the Court of justice made last July, which said that the current system was discriminatory in the way it issued butter import certificates. The new regime, which was negotiated with the New Zealand government provides 55% of licences to traditional New Zealand butter importers and 45% to new arrivals on the market. The quota tariff will be reduced by 19.4%. Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture said that, “It was important to find a solution before the end of the year to allow trade to continue to flow smoothly”.
According to the new arrangements, which enters into force in 2007, import licences for the current quota of 77,402 tonnes a year of New Zealand butter will be divided between traditional importers and those who arrive on the market. Customs duty for the importer of New Zealand butter within the quota is reduced by 8688 (today) to €70 per kilogramme, which represents a reduction in the tariff of almost 20%. Amendments were also made to characteristics of the butter. Currently, the product should have a butterfat standard from 80% to 82% (directly obtained from milk or cream). Now the limit will be between 80 and 85%. The total quota is reduced by 3.5% (74.693t) to take into account the higher butter fat level.
At the end of September, the Commission took measures to continue to the end of the year with imports of New Zealand butter and guarantee importers non-discriminatory access for importer to quotas. Last July the Court of Justice found in favour of a German company that had complained that import licences for New Zealand butter were being granted to subsidiaries alone (particularly British) and the New Zealand company “Fonterra”, which is the biggest exporter of milk products in the world. The Court judged that the arrangements for Community imports was discriminatory given that requests for New Zealand butter imports at reduced duty could only be submitted to the competent authorities in the United Kingdom and only in favour of Fonterra subsidiaries. It therefore decided to cancel the 2001 regulation on milk and milk product import arrangement and open up tariff quotas. (lc)