1.

In compliance with an undertaking given in 1962 within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) the Community opens each year a tariff quota for frozen beef and veal originating in nonmember countries. Since 1980 the quota has been fixed at 50000 tonnes. The quota for 1983 was opened and allocated by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3225/82 of 23 November 1982 (Official Journal L 340, p. 4). Imports are subject to a single Common Customs Tariff duty of 20% but are exempt from the levy fixed by the common market organization. The aforesaid quota is apportioned between the Member States. According to Article 2 of the regulation, the quota share allocated in Italy in respect of 1983 was divided into two parts, one of 9658 tonnes and the other of 4757 tonnes. Within the framework of that quota share and with regard to the criteria laid down by the Decreto Ministeriale [Ministerial Decree] of 22 April 1983 on the allocation of the GATT quota for 1983 (Gazzetta Ufficiale No 111 of 23 April 1983, p. 3115) two Italian undertakings imported a total of 41280 kg of boned or boneless beef and veal from Czechoslovakia. Upon discovering that the meat was not to be used to satisfy the requirements of the Italian market but was to be re-exported immediately to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Italian customs authorities ordered its seizure. That step was subsequently confirmed by the Verona Public Prosecutor, who considered that the diversion of the goods to a different destination constituted a smuggling offence (Articles 287 and 293 of the consolidated text of the legislative provisions concerning customs matters of the Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica [Order of the President of the Republic] No 43 of 23 January 1973). T. Migliorini and T. Fischi, representatives of one of the two undertakings, brought an action before the Tribunale di Verona [District Court, Verona] for judicial review of that decision and the court revoked the seizure. The Public Prosecutor appealed to the Corte suprema di cassazione against that decision and ordered the goods to be seized once more, this time on the ground of an attempted aggravated fraud to the detriment of the Italian State and of the EEC (Article 640 (1) of the Italian Criminal Code). Since this allegation had not been raised before the Tribunale di Verona the two undertakings likewise appealed to the Corte suprema di cassazione against the second decision. In its order referring the case to the Court of Justice the Corte suprema di cassazione states that the application of the aforementioned provisions of criminal law and the legality of the Decreto Ministeriale of 22 April 1983 depend upon the interpretation of Regulation No 3225/82. It is necessary, according to the Italian court, to determine whether the reference to ‘the requirements of the Member States’ (second recital in the preamble to Regulation No 3225/82) relates exclusively to the requirements of domestic consumption or, more widely, to all economic uses, in particular, for export purposes; or, in the absence of any express prohibition of reexports, whether such a prohibition follows from the principle of a ‘fair allocation’ of the quota share between the Member States (same recital), which is intended to avoid situations of economic privilege or unequal access to the national import quota. Consequently, the Corte suprema di cassazione referred the following question to the Court of Justice: ‘In so far as Regulation (EEC) No 3225/82 provided for the allocation of the tariff quota among the Member States according to their requirements determined on the basis of the criteria laid down therein, was it intended to refer to the use of the meat imported from a nonmember country for consumption and trade only within the importing country, without any possibility of re-exportation of the meat to another country in the Community?’