Following trade negotiations which resulted in the conclusion of agreements in the form of an Exchange of Letters with Canada and the United States of America, approved respectively by Council Decisions 2003/253/EC2 and 2003/254/EC3, the Community changed the conditions for the import of common wheat of low and medium quality and of barley by creating import quotas from 1 January 2003. For barley, the Community decided to replace the system of preference margins by two tariff quotas, one for malting barley and one for barley, under Commission Regulation (EC) No 2376/20024.

Regulation (EC) No 2376/2002 opens a tariff quota of 300 000 tonnes for imports of barley falling within CN code 1003 00 from third countries and derogates from Regulation (EC) No 1766/92. Following the amendment of Article 10(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1766/92 by Regulation (EC) No 1104/2003 with regard to the calculation of import duties on certain cereals, that tariff quota has become definitive. As a result, Regulation (EC) No 2376/2002 may no longer provide for a derogation. For the sake of clarity and transparency, therefore, that Regulation should be repealed and replaced by a new Regulation.

On 1 May 2004 the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia become Member States of the European Union. Since the tariff quota for the import of 300 000 tonnes of barley is an annual quota awarded weekly from 1 January 2004, it is possible that it will be exhausted or largely used up on the scheduled accession date. For 2004 only, therefore, specific provisions should be laid down to enable the new Member States to make use of these quotas.

To ensure that imports of the barley covered by this tariff quota are orderly and not speculative, they should be made subject to the issue of import licences. These licences will be issued, within the quantities set, at the request of the interested parties, subject, where appropriate, to the fixing of a reduction coefficient in respect of the quantities applied for.

To ensure the proper management of this quota, deadlines should be laid down for the lodging of licence applications and the information to be included in applications and licences should be specified.

To take account of supply conditions, a derogation should be made concerning the period of validity of the licences.

With a view to the sound management of the quota, a derogation should be made from Commission Regulation (EC) No 1291/2000 of 9 June 2000 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of import and export licences and advance fixing certificates for agricultural products5 as regards the transferable nature of the licences and the tolerance relating to the quantities released into free circulation.

The security on the import licences should also be set at a relatively high level, by derogation from Article 12 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1342/2003 of 28 July 2003 laying down special detailed rules for the application of the system of import and export licences for cereals and rice6.

Rapid two-way communication should be established between the Commission and the Member States regarding the quantities applied for and imported.

The Management Committee for Cereals has not issued an opinion by the time limit laid down by its Chairman,