Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:279
Date: 1999-06-03
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Beef and veal;Monetary measures in the field of agriculture
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Denmark

Summary of the Judgment 
Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Export refunds — Product 
processed before entering the country of import — Conditions of payment — Processing 
'in the non-member country into which all the products resulting from such processing 
were imported' — Definition of non-member country 
(Commission Regulation No 3665/87, Art. 17(2), second subpara., second indent) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-74/98 
The second indent of the second subpara­
graph of Article 17(2) of Commission Reg­
ulation No 3665/87 laying down common 
detailed rules for the application of the 
system of export refunds on agricultural 
products, which provides that a product 
which was processed before being imported 
is still to be regarded as having been 
imported in the unaltered state if the 
processing took place in the non-member 
country into which all the products result­
ing from such processing were imported, 
must be interpreted as meaning that the 
countries parties to the Charter of the 
Cooperation Council for the Arab States 
of the Gulf are not regarded, where prod­
ucts are processed before being cleared 
through customs on the territory of one of 
those countries and then exported to 
others, as a single non-member country 
into which all the products resulting from 
that processing have been imported. 
The wording of that provision is clear and 
unambiguous in referring, in the singular, 
to 'the non-member country into which all 
the products... were imported' to designate 
the place where the products may first be 
processed without the right to the refund 
being lost. 
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