(1)

The Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Community and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXIV:6 and Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 (2), approved by Council Decision 2006/333/EC (3), provides for the opening of a Community tariff quota for the import of a maximum annual quantity of 242 074 tonnes of maize.

(2)

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

(3)

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.

(4)

In order to ensure that the actual quantities being requested by individual traders may be verified, it is necessary to specify that traders must submit only one import licence application per weekly period and to provide for a penalty in the event of failure to meet this requirement.

(5)

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

(6)

In order to ensure 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 products (4) as regards the transferable nature of the licences and the tolerance relating to the quantities released into free circulation.

(7)

With a view to the sound management of the quota, the security for import licences should be set at a relatively high level, by way of 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 rice (5).

(8)

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

(9)

The origin of the products covered by this Regulation should be determined in accordance with the rules in force in the Community. In order to verify the origin of the products concerned, a certificate of origin issued by the authorities of the country from which the maize originates should be required on import, in accordance with Community rules.

(10)

Since the Agreement approved by Decision 2006/333/EC provides for implementation on 1 July 2006, this Regulation must apply from the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

(11)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Cereals,

(a)

in box 8, the country of origin of the product, with a cross in the ‘yes’ box;

(b)

in box 20, one of the entries given in Annex II;

(c)

in box 24, the words ‘zero import duty’.