Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1997:18
Date: 1997-01-16
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Free movement of goods;Common customs tariff;Customs Union
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Portugal

Summary of the Judgment 
Common Customs Tariff — Tariff headings — Grated cheese obtained from a type of cheese 
having a moisture content greater than that normally used which, by reason of the method of its 
packaging and preservation, is in an agglomerated form but, after unpacking and exposure to the 
surrounding air, breaks down into irregular granules — CUssification under subheading 
0406 20 90 of the Combined Nomendature 
Subheading 0406 20 90 of Regulation 
N o 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical 
nomenclature and on the Common Customs 
Tariff, as amended by Regulation 
No 3174/88 amending Annex I to Regulation 
No 2658/87, must be interpreted as including 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-164/95 
grated cheese obtained from a type of cheese 
having a moisture content greater than that 
normally used to produce grated cheese 
which, when imported, is, by reason of the 
method of packaging and preservation used, 
in an agglomerated form and, after unpack­
ing and exposure to the surrounding air, 
breaks down into irregular granules. 
In so far as the cheese in question was grated 
prior to packaging and broke down into 
irregular granules after unpacking and expo­
sure to the surrounding air, neither the fact 
that the product in question is obtained from 
a type of cheese having a moisture content 
greater than that normally used to produce 
grated cheese nor the method of packaging 
or preservation of the product can, for pur­
poses of the Combined Nomenclature, 
deprive it of its objective character, namely 
grated cheese. 
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