Small Sample of Class Notes

Here is a sampling of 30 min. of class notes.

Customs Duties
· Arts 23-25 (formerly 9-17)
· EEC prohibited customs duties (CDs) or charges of equivalent effect (CEEs)
· Major limitation of national sovereignty
o Internal Taxation is presumed Legal
§ Unless they overstep their bounds
Know the difference between a customs duty and internal taxation?
· Free Trade Area
o Like NAFTA
· Customs Union
o The EU
§ Member states cannot make tariffs on good that come from non member states

· Common Market
o = Customs Union + the 4 Freedoms
· Internal Market
o Common Market changed its name to the internal market
§ I.e. Same set of forms used for each counrty
· Economic and Monetary Union
o Euro

Van Gend en Loos
· Art 23 (12) prohibited imposition of customs duties on imports
· Art 23 “directly effective”
· EEC is a new order in international law
o States limit their sovereign rights in certain fields upon joining EEC
o Community Law imposes rights and obligations on Citizens and M/Ss
o National courts therefore obliged to ensure Art 23(12) is respected
o New in that EU can strike down domestic law

Commission V. Italy (Art Treasures)
· levy on art exports
o Wants to inhibit Italian Artifacts from leaving the country
· “goods” defined (widely)
· CDs / CEEs objectionable because they hinder trade (benign purpose irrelevant)
o The purpose that Italy is tariff the art leaving the country is benign doesn’t matter

S.F.D.B. v SA Ch. Brachfeld (Diamondworkers)
· Levy on diamond imports into Belgium not protectionist or discriminatory
· CDs/CEEs are prohibited independently of purpose…any pecuniary charge (however small) imposed on goods by virtue of crossing border is prohibited
o It doesn’t matter what the charge is called, if it is a charge it is not applicable only to external countries
o Purpose doesn’t matter
§ Customs duties are always Banned

Commission v. Italy (Statistical Levy)
· Levy imposed by Italy in order to collect statistics on flows of imports/exports
· levy is a CEE because goods cross border
· irrelevant that it is not for benefit of the State, not discriminatory, not protective
o Even though you are not being discriminatory, makes no difference
o If a levy is created by goods crossing the border, it is illegal

Exceptions
· Exception 1 - CEEs necessitated by mandatory EC requirements
o “Live cattle imports” (Commission v Germany)
o inspection charges did not violate Treaty prohibition provided several criteria are satisfied………
§ (a) fee does not exceed actual cost of inspection
§ (b) inspection is obligatory in EC area
§ (c)inspection is prescribed by EC legislation
§ (d) inspection promotes Free Movement of Goods

· Exception 2 - fees for service which confers specific benefit on importer “Statistical Levy”
1. M/S would have to demonstrate that a specific benefit was conferred on individual importer rather than on general body of importers, and
2. the fee must not exceed actual cost of inspection
§ Bresciani v Italy
· The carrying out of public health inspections are not a specific benefit to the importer, but to the general public…hence any fee imposed for such inspections constitute a CEE

· Exception 3 - fees imposed in furtherance of International Conventions
o Clash between EC & International law?
o Netherlands v Bakker Hillegom
§ fees will be CEEs if they are not related to actual costs of inspection
§ EU law is superior to International Law, but...
· It the Intl Convention allows the member states to charge a customs duty is allowed as long as the fee does not exceed the cost of inspection

· Exception 4 - where fee is really an Art 90(95) measure (Internal Taxation)
o Where a charge or fee is imposed as part of a “general system of internal dues”, i.e.,
§ applied systematically, in accordance with the same criteria, to domestic and imported products alike, at the same stage of marketing or production
§ then it falls outside CDs / CEEs regime