Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS AND THE EEC: THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A CONSTITUTIONAL CONFLICT
Keith H. Hendry
Lecturer in Law, The University of Birmingham.
A cursory glance at a list of EEC agreements with countries outside of the Nine would indicate a wide web of relations ranging from preferential trade agreements with Austria, Sweden and Switzerland, inter alia, through more specific agreements on fisheries, textiles, thermo-nuclear fusion, industrial, technical and financial cooperation, and culminating in the special relationship between the EEC and some 57 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in the massive Lome Convention which covers trade co-operation, a system for the stabilisation of those countries’ export earnings, a special protocol on sugar exports and co-operation in the industrial, technical and financial fields.1 These are, of course, bilateral or multilateral agreements, but the Community is also empowered to regulate its affairs with third countries autonomously; thus, for example, it has established common rules for imports and exports, it has produced a common procedure for administering quantitative quotas and it has protected itself against dumping or the granting of bounties or subsidies by countries outside of the Community.2 Furthermore, the agreements and measures mentioned will, to a great degree, be general statements of principle and intent; the hard mechanics of each system will be worked out by means of detailed legal instruments available to the Community institutions which will be binding in law on the Member States and persons within them.
A commercial enterprise that falls within the ambit of these Community matters will undoubtedly find it complex and a familiarity with the subject matter will inevitably become a necessary part of the skills commercial advisers offer. This article offers the reader no more than a glimpse at the underlying system and complexity of the EEC’s relations with third countries. One dominant problem is focused on; it is, in essence, a constitutional problem but a constitutional problem with practical implications for those that operate under a system regulated by Community law. The problem may be simply posed as a question of the extent to which the Community, to the exclusion of
1 The trade agreements referred to may be found in the Official Journal of the European Communities (O.J.) as follows: the agreement with Austria, O.J. 1972, L.300; with Sweden, O.J. 1977, L.300; and with Switzerland, O.J. 1972, L.300. As an example of more specific agreements see, e.g., the agreement on textiles with Romania, O.J. 1977, L.357. The Lome Convention may be found in O.J. 1976, L.25. A new Lomé Convention came into effect on Mar. 1, 1980.
2 See Council Regulation 1439/74 on common import rules, O.J. 1974, L.159/1 ; Council Regulation 2603/69 on common export rules, O.J. 1969, L.324/5; Council Regulation 1023/70 for administering quantitative quotas, O.J. 1970, L.124/1; and Council Regulation 459/68 on protection against dumping, bounties and subsidies, O.J. 1968, L.93/1.
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