1. Where a quota authorisation remains unused after 6 months of its issuing, the importer shall either notify the Licence Office of its intention to use it within the remainder of the quota period or return the quota authorisation to the relevant Licence Office. Should the importer be unable to retrieve the unused quota authorisation from the authorities of the Russian Federation, it can present instead a corresponding sworn declaration to the Licence Office in the form set out in Annex IV stating its inability to reclaim the unused quota authorisation despite its best efforts. In any case, by the end of quota period n at the latest, the importer shall return any unused quota authorisation or present, if applicable, the corresponding sworn declaration(s) using the form set out in Annex IV. Where a quota authorisation has been issued before the beginning of the quota period in accordance with Article 4 of the Protocol, the 6-month time limit shall be counted as from 1 January of the year corresponding to the quota period.
2. The Licence Offices shall immediately notify the Commission of any quota authorisation or any sworn declaration returned by importers in accordance with paragraph 1. The balance of traditional importers' ceilings available for the product group concerned shall be modified for the corresponding amount.
Textual Amendments
1. Where the actual imports by a traditional importer during quota period n-1 are less than 75 % of the quantities covered by all quota authorisations for a product group granted to such importer during the same quota period, the importer's import ceilings for the product group concerned during quota period n+1 shall be reduced by an amount proportional to the size of missing actual imports.
2. The reduction referred to in paragraph 1 shall be calculated as follows:
r i = (0,75*ΣΑ i – I i )/ΣΑ i
where:
‘ ri ’ represents the reduction applicable to the import ceiling of importer i, for the product group concerned, during the quota period n+1;
‘ ΣΑi ’ represents the sum of the quantities covered by quota authorisations for the product group concerned granted to the traditional importer i during the quota period n-1;
‘ Ii ’ represents the actual imports of the product group concerned of importer i during the quota period n-1.
Textual Amendments
1. Where a quota authorisation that has not been returned or covered by a corresponding sworn declaration pursuant to Article 12 remains unused at the end of quota period n-1, the importer's import ceilings for the product group concerned during quota period n+1 shall be reduced by the amount proportional to the size of the unused quota authorisation.
2. The reduction referred to in paragraph 1 shall be calculated as follows:
R i = ΣU i /ΣΑ i
where:
‘R i ’ represents the reduction applicable to the import ceiling of importer i, for the product group concerned, during quota period n+1;
‘ΣU i ’ represents the sum of unused quantities covered by quota authorisations for the product group concerned granted to importer i during the quota period n-1;
‘ΣΑ i ’ represents the sum of the quantities covered by quota authorisations granted to importer i, for the product group concerned, during the quota period n-1.]
Textual Amendments
1. Should the conditions for reduction of import ceilings provided for in Articles 13 and 14 be both met simultaneously, only the higher reduction (R i or r i ) shall be applied.
[F12. The provisions of Article 13 and 14 shall not apply during the first three quota periods following the transitional period.] ]