Chapter 2 Flashcards
What is Article 26(2)
‘The internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the Treaties’.
What are ‘goods’?
Commission v Italy
‘products which can be valued in money and which are capable, as such, of forming the subject of commercial transactions’.
What is a customs union?
> A ‘free trade area’ where goods pass between countries without the imposition of restrictions such as customs duties [internal]
A system for the charging of a ‘common customs tariff’ on goods coming into the free trade area from other countries [external]
What is Article 28(1)?
The Union shall comprise a customs union which shall cover all trade in goods and which shall involve the prohibition between Member States of customs duties on imports and exports and of all charges having equivalent effect, and the adoption of a common customs tariff in their relations with third countries.
What are the provisions of the treaty?
Article 30 - Prohibits customs duties and charges having equivalent effect
Article 110 - prohibits discriminatory taxation
What are charges having equivalent effect?
Commission v Italy (Statistical Levy)
> ‘Any pecuniary charge … which is imposed unilaterally on domestic or foreign goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier and which is not a customs duty in the strict sense …’
What is IRRELEVANT to identify a CEE ?
Size of charge
Designation
Mode of application
That the charge is not imposed for the benefit of the State.
That the charge is not discriminatory
That the charge is not protective in effect
That the product on which the charge is imposed is not in competition with any domestic product
What happened in Commission v Italy (Statistical Levy)
Levy imposed by italy on imports for the purpose of collecting accurate statistical material relating to trade patterns
What happened in Sociaal Fonds?
Charge on diamonds imported into Belgium was a CEE even though not protectionist
What about charges that do not constitute a customs duty of a CEE?
3 Ways 1. Related to a system of internal dues 2. Payment for a service rendered 3. Attaches to inspections imposed by EU law Commission v Germany
Explain Internal Dues
Charges will not fall within Article 30 but Article 110
Mutually exclusive - Afrons Lutticke
Explain Payment for a Service Rendered
Payment for a specific service actually rendered to the importer and in proportion to that service from being lawful
Commission v Italy
Statistical Levy case
Importer must benefit
Bresciani
- was a CEE
- inspection was for general public not service to the importer
Commission v Belgium
Must be done at the request of the importer
Explain Bresciani
Levy to cover the cost of compulsory veterinary inspections on animal products in Italy
Imposed in general interest of the public so NOT service to the importer
So it was a CEE
The cost of the inspections should have been met by the general public as it was the public as a whole who benefitted from the inspections, not the importer.
Explain Commission v Belgium (customs warehouses)
Must be done at the request of the importer
charges on goods deposited in customs warehouses situated in the interior of Belgium.
The Court held that a charge for the temporary storage of goods in the warehouses at the request of the importer was not a CEE as this was a charge for a service.
the levying of the storage charge on goods presented by the importer at the warehouses solely for the purpose of undergoing compulsory customs clearance operations there, even when the goods were exempt from storage and the importer had not requested that they be placed in storage, was a CEE as it was not a charge for a service
Explain inspections
Must be inspection required by EU law
Bresciani
Commission v Germany (Animal Inspectors)
- was required under a Directive
4 Requirements
- must not exceed actual costs
- must be obligatory and uniform for relevant products
- must be prescribed by EU law
- Must promote the free movement of goods