FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS – FISCAL BARRIERS TO TRADE (PART I) : CUSTOMS DUTIES & CEEs Flashcards
What is the broad definition of the concept of goods? What case was it established in?
“products, which can be valued in money and which are capable as such, of forming the subject of commercial transactions”
Case 7/68 Commission v Italy (‘art treasures’)
What does Article 23 of the TFEU state?
Article 28 of the TFEU promotes the free circulation of goods within the EU by establishing a customs union. The customs union prohibits the charging of any duties on imports and exports within member states of the EU or the levying of any charge having the equivalent effect as a customs duty (CEE)
What are the formalities on goods imported from third countries outside of the EU into a member state?
Duties are still payable on goods coming from countries outwith the EU but once the goods have passed through the import formalities of one member state they enjoy the same freedom of movement as goods originating within the EU.
What was a charge having equivalent effect defined as?What case was this definition given in?
24/68 Commission v Italy
“any pecuniary charge, however small and whatever its designation and mode of application, 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 was 24/68 Commission v Italy about?
The case concerned the levying of a small fee (only 10 lira) on imports and exports to fund statistical surveys.
What treaty provision states that “Customs duties on imports and exports and charges having equivalent effect shall be prohibited between Member States. This prohibition shall also apply to customs duties of a fiscal nature.”
Article 30TFEU
What does Article 110 TFEU cover?
Prohibition of discriminatory or protectionist internal taxation.
No Member State shall impose, directly or indirectly, on the products of other Member States any internal taxation of any kind in excess of that imposed directly or indirectly on similar domestic products.
Furthermore, no Member State shall impose on the products of other Member States any internal taxation of such a nature as to afford indirect protection to other products.
What is the difference between internal tax and customs duty?
“the essential feature of a charge having an effect equivalent to a customs duty which distinguishes it from an internal tax is that the former is borne solely by a product which crosses a frontier, as such, whilst the latter is borne by imported, exported and domestic products.”-
C-441 & C-442/98 Michaïlidis [2000] ECR I-7145,
What are the two main types of fiscal barriers?
two main forms of fiscal barriers are custom duties being a charge levied on goods simply by virtue of crossing a border, and internal taxation, being taxes levied on goods that are not levied on equivalent domestic products.
what is a fiscal barrier?
A fiscal barrier is a monetary or financial charge levied on goods inflowing into a EU member state, that is not levied on domestic goods.
What does Art.12 EEC prohibit?
- Art. 12 EEC (standstill):
Member States shall refrain from introducing between themselves any new customs duties on imports or exports or any charges having equivalent effect, and from increasing those which they already apply in their trade with each other.
How were charges having equivalent effect (CEEs) defined and in what case?
- “… a charge which is imposed either by reason of, or at the time of, importation and which, being imposed specifically upon a product imported from a Member State to the exclusion of a similar domestic product, has, by altering its price, the same effect upon the free movement of goods as a customs duty.”
Case 10/65 Deutschamann [1965] ECR 469
Joined Cases 2 and 3/6, Diamantarbeiders [1969] ECR 211, §§ 11-14, what was established in this case with regards to non-fiscal barriers?
- Customs duties and CEEs ( Charges having equivalent effect) “are prohibited independently of any consideration of the purpose for which they were introduced and the destination of the revenue obtained therefrom.”
The scope of article 28 and 30 was extended to apply to goods crossing an (internal frontier from one MS into another Ms), what was the case?
“… a charge … levied by a Member State on goods imported from another Member State by reason of their entry into a region of the territory of the first Member State constitutes a charge having an effect equivalent to a customs duty on imports, notwithstanding the fact that the charge is also imposed on goods entering that region from another part of the same State.”
Case 163/90 Legros [1992] ECR I-4625, § 18
In what circumstance would there be an exception to Article 30
B. But charges may be “permissible”, i.e. fall outside the scope of Art. 30 TFEU
- “… such a charge escapes that classification if it relates to a general system of internal dues applied systematically and in accordance with the same criteria to domestic products and imported products alike …, if it constitutes payment for a service in fact rendered to the economic operator of a sum in proportion to the service …, or again, subject to certain conditions, if it attaches to inspections carried out to fulfil obligations imposed by Community law ….”
Case 18/87 Commission v Germany [1988] ECR 5427, § 6
