Australian Treaty Series Australian Treaty Series
CANBERRA
1957 No. 7
Canberra
THE PARTIES TO THIS PROTOCOL, taking into account Resolution No. 3 adopted at the Ninth Plenary Meeting of the United Nations Sugar Conference 1956 by which the Parties to the International Sugar Agreement opened for signature at London on 1 October 1953[1] (hereinafter referred to as "the Principal Agreement") unanimously resolved that it would be appropriate to effect a modification of that Agreement by means of a Protocol of Amendment, and desiring by such Protocol to introduce into that Agreement certain amendments drawn up by the United Nations Sugar Conference 1956,
HEREBY AGREE as follows:
(1) The Parties to this Protocol undertake that they will, in accordance with the provisions of this Protocol, attribute full legal force and effect to, and duly apply, the amendments to the Principal Agreement as they are set forth in the Annex to this Protocol.
(2) The amendments set forth in the Annex to this Protocol shall come into force on the date of entry into force of this Protocol, and any State becoming a party to the Principal Agreement, after the amendments thereto have come into force, shall become a Party to the Principal Agreement as so amended.
As soon as possible after this Protocol has been opened for signature, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall prepare a text of the Principal Agreement incorporating the amendments set out in the Annex to this Protocol and shall send certified copies for their information to the Governments of all the Parties to the Principal Agreement and of all other States invited to the United Nations Sugar Conference 1956.
(1) This Protocol shall be open for signature at London from 1 to 15 December 1956, inclusive, by the Parties to the Principal Agreement.[2]
(2) This Protocol shall be subject to ratification or acceptance by signatory Governments in accordance with their respective constitutional procedures, and the instruments of ratification or acceptance shall be deposited with the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[3]
(3) This Protocol shall be open for accession by any Party to the Principal Agreement which has not signed this Protocol and such accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
(4) Governments of States which are not Parties to the Principal Agreement but which were invited to the United Nations Sugar Conference 1956, may accede to the Principal Agreement as amended in accordance with this Protocol pursuant to the provisions of Article 41 of that Agreement as so amended.
(1) This Protocol shall enter into force on 1 January 1957 if on that date instruments of ratification or acceptance of, or accession to, this Protocol and instruments of accession to the Principal Agreement as amended in accordance with this Protocol have been deposited by Governments holding 60 per cent of the votes of importing countries and 75 percent of the votes of exporting countries under the distribution set out in the Annex to this Protocol, or on such later date during the following six months on which these percentages have been reached; provided that notifications containing an undertaking to seek to obtain as rapidly as possible under their constitutional procedure, but not later than 1 July 1957, either
(a) ratification or acceptance of, or accession to, this Protocol, or
(b) accession to the Principal Agreement as amended in accordance with this Protocol,
received by 1 January 1957 by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from Parties to the Principal Agreement or Governments referred to in Article 3(4) which by that date have been unable to ratify, accept or accede to this Protocol, or to the Principal Agreement as amended by it, as the case may be, will be considered as equivalent to ratification, acceptance or accession for the purpose of this paragraph.[4]
(2) In any event the obligations for the l957 quota year under this Protocol and the Principal Agreement as amended by it of Governments which have ratified, accepted or acceded to this Protocol or acceded to the Principal Agreement as amended by this Protocol not later than 1 July 1957 will run as from 1 January 1957.
(3) If on 1 July 1957 the percentage of votes on importing countries or of exporting countries the Governments of which have ratified, accepted or acceded to this Protocol and the Governments of which have acceded to the Principal Agreement as amended by this Protocol is less than the percentage required for the entry into force of this Protocol in accordance with paragraph 1, the Governments which have so ratified, accepted or acceded may agree to put into force among themselves the Principal Agreement as amended by this Protocol.
(4) The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will notify all Parties to the Principal Agreement and all other States represented by delegates or observers at the United Nations Sugar Conference 1956 of each signature and of the deposit of any instrument referred to in Article 3 of this Protocol.
If on 1 July l957 any Government which has notified its undertaking to seek to obtain accession to the Principal Agreement as amended in accordance with this Protocol has not deposited an instrument of accession, the International Sugar Council referred to in Article 27 of the Principal Agreement shall determine, in consultation with such Government, the status of such Government in relation to the Principal Agreement as amended and the conditions pertaining to such status.
If
(a) after the amendments set forth in the Annex to this Protocol have entered into force any Party to the Principal Agreement has not ratified, accepted or acceded to this Protocol or notified its undertaking to seek to obtain ratification, acceptance or accession, or
(b) on 1 July 1957 any Party to the Principal Agreement has not ratified, accepted or acceded to this Protocol,
the International Sugar Council shall consult with such Government with a view to resolving the problems arising therefrom.
Any Government may at the time of signature, ratification or acceptance of, or accession to, this Protocol or accession to the Principal Agreement as amended by this Protocol, or at any time thereafter, declare by notification given to the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland that this Protocol or the Principal Agreement as amended by this Protocol shall extend to all or any of the territories for which it has international responsibility and this Protocol or the Principal Agreement as amended by it, as the case may be, shall from the date of the receipt of the notification extend to all the territories named therein.
This Protocol, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which shall transmit certified copies thereof to each signatory and acceding Government.
IN FAITH WHEREOF the undersigned, duly authorized, have signed this Protocol on behalf of their respective Governments on the dates appearing opposite their signatures.
DONE at London, 1 December 1956.
In Article 2, paragraph (3), the following shall be added after the first sentence of the paragraph:
"Sugar destined for uses other than human consumption as food is excluded, to the extent and under such conditions as the Council may determine."
In Article 7, paragraph (1), sub-paragraph (i), "maximum established in Article 20" shall be replaced by "the higher price referred to in Article 21(3)".
To Article 8, paragraph (1), the following shall be added at the end of the paragraph:
"Subject to such tolerances as the Council may prescribe, any amount by which total net exports of an exporting country in any quota year exceeds its export quota in effect at the end of that year shall be charged to the export quota in effect of that country for the next following quota year."
Article 8, paragraph (2), shall read:
"The Council may if it deems necessary because of exceptional circumstances limit the proportion of their quotas which participating exporting countries having basic tonnages in excess of 75,000 tons may export during any part of a quota year, provided that no such limitation shall prevent the participating exporting countries from exporting, during the first eight months of any quota year, 80 per cent of their initial export quotas and provided further that the Council may at any time modify or remove any such limitation which it may have imposed."
Article 11 shall read:
"The Government of each participating exporting country agrees to notify the Council, as soon as possible but not later than 30 September, whether or not it expects that its country's export quota in effect will be used and, if not, of such part of its country's export quota in effect as it expects will not be used, and on receipt of such advice the Council shall take action in accordance with Article 19(1)(i)."
Article 12 shall read:
"If the actual net exports to the free market of any participating exporting country in a quota year fall short of its export quota in effect at the time of notification by its Government in accordance with Article 11, less such part, if any, of that quota as the Government has notified under Article 11 that it expected would not be used, and less any net reduction in its export quota in effect made subsequently by the Council under Article 21, the difference shall be deducted from that country's export quota in effect in the following quota year to the extent that such difference exceeds 10,000 tons or 5 per cent of its basic export tonnage, whichever is larger. The Council may however modify the amount to be so deducted, if it is satisfied by an explanation from the participating exporting country concerned that its net exports fell short by reason of force majeure."
In Article 13, paragraph (5), the reference to "Article 22" shall be replaced by "Article 21".
In Article 14, paragraph (1), "For each of the" shall be replaced by "(i) For the first three"; and the following shall be added at the end of the paragraph:
"(ii) For the last two quota years during which this Agreement is in force the exporting countries or areas named below shall have the following basic export tonnages for the free market:
(in thousands of tons) | |
| Belgium (including Belgian Congo) | 55* |
| Brazil | 175 |
| China (Taiwan) | 655 |
| Colombia | 5 |
| Cuba | 2,415 |
| Czechoslovakia | 275 |
| Dominican Republic | 655 |
| France | 20+ |
| Germany, Eastern | 150 |
| Haiti | 45 |
| Hungary | 40 |
| India | 25 |
| Indonesia | 350 |
| Mexico | 75 |
| Kingdom of the Netherlands | 40 |
| Peru | 457 |
| Philippines | 25 |
| Poland | 220 |
| USSR | 200 |
| Yugoslavia | 20 |
* To be 50,000 tons for 1957.
+ The allocation to France of this basic export tonnage preserves to that country the same possibilities of making sales on the free market as the text of this Agreement as opened for signature on 1 October 1953; and considering that paragraph 3 of Article 14 is deleted, it is recognized, in accordance with the decision of the Council of 1 December 1955, that France may export to the free market a quantity of sugar not exceeding 70,000 tons which is not chargeable against her net export quota."
In Article 14, paragraph (2), after "Czechoslovak Republic" the following shall be added ", Hungary".
Article 14, paragraph (3) shall be deleted.
In Article 14, paragraph (4), "Costa Rica, Ecuador and Nicaragua" shall be replaced by "Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Panama".
In Article 14, paragraph (6) shall be deleted and after paragraph (5) the following shall be added:
"(6bis) Portugal to which no basic export tonnage has been allotted under Article 14(1) may export to its traditional markets in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland up to 20,000 tons raw value each quota year and shall have the status of an exporting country.
A BIS. SPECIAL RESERVE
(6ter) A Special Reserve is established for the quota years 1957 and 1958 and is allocated as follows:
(in thousands of tons) | |
| China (Taiwan) | 95 |
| India | 25 |
| Indonesia | 50* |
| Philippines | 20 |
* Only in 1958
Notwithstanding that these allocations are not basic export tonnages, the provisions of the Agreement other than those of Article 19 shall apply to them as if they were basic export tonnages."
In Article 14, paragraph (7), sub-paragraph (c), after "third" the following shall be added ", fourth and fifth".
In Article 14, paragraph (8), sub-paragraph (ii), the reference to Article "22" shall be replaced by Article "21"; and the reference to "Articles 12 and 21(3)" shall be replaced by "Articles 12 and 21".
In Article 15, the following shall be deleted: "and the countries which France represents internationally"; and "(including Surinam)".
In Article 16, paragraph (1), sub-paragraph (ii), "year 1956" shall be replaced by "years 1956 and 1957"; at the end of sub-paragraph (ii) the following shall be added "per year;"; and after sub-paragraph (ii), the following shall be added:
"(iii) In the calendar year 1958 - 2,540,835 tons (2,500,000 English long tons) tel quel."
In Article 18, paragraph (2), the second sentence shall read:
"After considering that estimate and all other factors affecting the supply and demand for sugar on the free market the Council shall forthwith assign an initial export quota for the free market for such year to each of the exporting countries listed in Article 14(1) pro rata to their basic export tonnages, subject to the provisions of Article 14B, to such penalties as may be imposed in accordance with the provisions of Article 12 and to such reductions as may be made under Article 21(8), provided that if at the time of fixing the initial export quotas the prevailing price is not less than 3.15 cents the total of the initial export quotas shall, unless the Council otherwise decides by Special Vote, be not less than 90 percent of the basic export tonnages, the distribution among exporting countries being made in the same manner provided in this paragraph."
Article 18, paragraph (3) shall be deleted.
Article 20 shall read:
"(1) For the purposes of this Agreement any reference to the price of sugar shall be deemed to be to the spot price in United States currency per pound avoirdupois free alongside steamer Cuban port, as established by the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange in relation to sugar covered by Contract No. 4, or any alternative price which may be established under paragraph (2) of this Article; and where any reference is made to the prevailing price being above or below any stated figure, that condition shall be deemed to be fulfilled if the average price over a period of seventeen consecutive market days has been above or below the stated figure, as the case may be, provided that the spot price on the first day of the period and on not less than twelve days within the period has also been above or below the stated figure, as the case may be.
(2) In the event of the price referred to in paragraph (1) of this Article not being available at a material period, the Council shall use such other criteria as it sees fit.
(3) Any of the prices laid down in Articles 18 and 21 may be modified by the Council by a Special Vote."
Article 21 shall read:
"(1) The Council shall have discretion to increase or reduce quotas to meet market conditions, provided that:
(i) when the prevailing price is not less than 3.25 cents and not more than 3.45 cents no increase shall be made so as to bring into effect quotas greater in total than the basic export tonnages plus 5 percent or the initial export quotas, whichever are the greater, and no decrease shall be made so as to bring into effect quotas which are less in total than either the initial export quotas less 5 percent or the basic export tonnages less 10 percent, whichever are the greater;
(ii) when the prevailing price exceeds 3.45 cents the quotas in effect shall be not less than the initial export quotas or the basic export tonnages, whichever are the greater;
(iii) if the prevailing price is below 3.25 cents the export quotas in effect shall at once be reduced by 21/2 percent and the Council shall meet within seven days to decide whether any further reduction shall be made; and if no agreement is reached at such meeting the percentage of the reduction shall be raised to 5 percent, provided that reductions shall not be made so as to reduce the quotas below 90 percent of the basic export tonnages unless the prevailing price is below 3.15 cents in which case further reduction may be made within the limits prescribed by Article 23; and
(iv) if the prevailing price has risen above 3.25 cents and the export quotas in effect are below 90 percent of the basic export tonnages, the export quotas in effect shall be increased at once by 21/2 percent and the Council shall meet within seven days to decide whether a further increase shall be made; and if no agreement is reached at such meeting the percentage of the increase shall be raised to 5 percent or such lesser amount as is required to restore the quotas to 90 percent.
(2) In considering changes in quotas under this Article the Council shall take into account all factors affecting the supply and demand for sugar on the free market.
(3) If the prevailing price exceeds 4.00 cents all quotas and limitations on exports under any of the Articles of this Agreement shall for the time being become inoperative, provided that if subsequently the prevailing price falls below 3.90 cents the quotas and limitations previously in effect shall be restored, subject to the power of the Council to vary quotas under paragraph (1) of this Article.
(4) If the Council is satisfied that a new situation has arisen which endangers the attainment of the general objectives of the Agreement it may, by Special Vote, suspend temporarily for such period as it may think necessary the limits imposed under the preceding paragraphs of this Article upon its discretion to increase quotas; and during the period of such suspension the Council shall have full discretion to increase quotas as it may think necessary and to cancel such increases when they are no longer required.
(5) All changes in quotas made under this Article shall be pro rata to the basic export tonnages, subject to the provisions of Article 14B; and any references to percentages of quotas shall be construed as percentages of the basic export tonnages.
(6) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (1) of this Article, if the export quota of any country has been reduced under Article 19(1)(i) such reduction shall be deemed to form part of the reductions made in the same quota year under the terms of paragraph (1) of this Article.
(7) The Secretary of the Council shall notify Participating Governments of each change made under this Article in the export quotas in effect.
(8) If any reduction made under the preceding paragraphs of this Article cannot be fully applied to the export quota in effect of any exporting country because, at the time the reduction is made, that country has already exported all or part of the amount of such reduction, a corresponding amount shall be deducted from the export quota in effect of that country in the following quota year."
Article 22 shall be deleted.
Article 33 shall read:
"The votes to be exercised by the respective delegations of importing countries on the Council shall be as follows:
Cambodia | 15 |
| Canada | 95 |
| Ceylon | 35 |
| Federal Republic of Germany | 60 |
| Honduras | 15 |
| Israel | 20 |
| Japan | 165 |
| Lebanon | 20 |
| New Zealand | 30 |
| Spain | 20 |
| Tunisia | 20 |
| United Kingdom | 245 |
| United States of America | 245 |
| Vietnam | 15 |
| TOTAL | 1,000" |
Article 34 shall read:
"The votes to be exercised by the respective delegations of exporting countries on the Council shall be as follows:
Australia | 45 |
| Belgium | 20 |
| China | 70 |
| Cuba | 245 |
| Czechoslovakia | 45 |
| Dominican Republic | 70 |
| Ecuador | 15 |
| France | 35 |
| Haiti | 20 |
| Hungary | 20 |
| India | 35 |
| Indonesia | 45 |
| Mexico | 25 |
| Kingdom of the Netherlands | 20 |
| Nicaragua | 15 |
| Panama | 15 |
| Peru | 45 |
| Philippines | 25 |
| Poland | 40 |
| Portugal | 15 |
| Romania | 15 |
| South Africa | 20 |
| USSR | 100 |
| TOTAL | 1,000" |
Article 35 shall read:
"Whenever the membership of this Agreement changes or when any country is suspended from voting or recovers its votes under any provision of this Agreement, the Council shall redistribute the votes within each group (importing countries and exporting countries) proportionately to the number of votes held by each member of the group, provided that no country shall have less than 15 or more than 245 votes and that there shall be no fractional votes, and provided further that the votes of countries having 245 votes under Article 33 or 34 shall not be reduced having regard to the substantial number of votes relinquished by each of those countries when accepting the number of votes attributed to them in Articles 33 and 34".
In Article 36, paragraph (3), the reference to "Articles 21 and 22" shall be replaced by "Article 21".
Article 41, paragraph (2) shall be deleted.
Article 41, paragraphs (3) and (4) shall read:
"(3) This Agreement shall be open for accession by any Government referred to in Article 33 or 34 and such accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, provided that, if any such Government wishes to accede upon terms or conditions other than those provided for in this Agreement, it shall first seek approval by the Council of such terms or conditions, which if approved shall be submitted as recommendations to the Participating Governments."
(4) The Council may approve accession to this Agreement by any Government invited to the United Nations Sugar Conference 1956 but not referred to in Article 33 or 34, provided that the conditions of such accession shall first be agreed upon with the Council by the Government desiring to effect it and submitted as recommendations to the Participating Governments."
In Article 44, paragraph (1), the first sentence shall read:
"(1) If any Participating Government considers its interests to be seriously prejudiced by the failure of any signatory Government to ratify or accept this Agreement or the Protocol amending this Agreement opened for signature at London on 1 December 1956, or to accede to this Agreement as amended by that Protocol, or by conditions or reservations attached to any signature, ratification, acceptance or accession, it shall so notify the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."
[1]ATS 1953 No. 12 UKTS 1956 No. 28 (Cmd. 9815); UNTS 258 p. 153; TIAS 3177; SP 160 p. 483.
[2] Signed for Australia 14 December 1956.
[3] Instrument of ratification deposited for Australia 26 June 1957.
[4] The Protocol entered into force for Australia and generally 2 July 1957.