Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1 Tax provisions - Internal taxation - Import surcharge on port duty - Discrimination between domestic products and products imported from another Member State - Prohibited

(EEC Treaty, Art. 95)

2 International agreements - EEC/Sweden Agreement - Prohibition of all tax discrimination against the products of the other contracting party - Import surcharge on port duty - Prohibited

(EEC/Sweden Agreement, Art. 18)

3 Tax provisions - Internal taxation - Levied on products imported directly from non-member countries - Article 95 of the Treaty not applicable

(EEC Treaty, Art. 95)

4 Community law - Direct effect - National duties incompatible with Community law - Repayment - Duty imposed or approved by a Member State - Proceeds of the duty allocated to other administrative operators - Determination by national law of the operator required to make repayment - Whether permissible - Conditions

5 Tax provisions - Internal taxation - Charges incompatible with Community law - Repayment - Limitation period - Application of national law - Whether permissible - Conditions

(EEC Treaty, Art. 95)

Summary

6 It is contrary to Article 95 of the Treaty for a Member State to impose a 40% import surcharge on a general duty levied on goods loaded, unloaded, or otherwise taken on board or landed within its ports or in the deep-water approach channels to its ports where goods are imported by ship from another Member State.

7 Article 18 of the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Sweden imposes on the contracting parties a rule against discrimination in matters of taxation, which is dependent only on a finding that the products affected by a particular system of taxation are of like nature, and which prohibits discrimination arising from any measure or practice having a direct or indirect effect on the way in which taxes imposed on the other contracting party's products are determined, applied or collected. It follows that a goods duty which forms part of a general system of internal dues applying systematically to categories of products according to objective criteria applied without regard to the origin of the products constitutes an internal measure of a fiscal nature within the meaning of Article 18 of that Agreement.

Accordingly, a 40% import surcharge on a general duty levied on goods loaded, unloaded, or otherwise taken on board or landed within its ports or in the deep-water approach channels to its ports where goods are imported by ship is contrary to Community law where it is applicable to goods imported from a non-member country with which the Community has concluded an agreement containing provisions similar to those of Article 18 of the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Sweden.

8 Article 95 of the Treaty applies only to products from the Member States and, where appropriate, to goods originating in non-member countries which are in free circulation in the Member States. It follows that that provision is not applicable to products imported directly from non-member countries. Furthermore, for trade with non-member countries, as far as internal taxation is concerned, the Treaty does not include any rule analogous to that laid down in Article 95.

9 Where a Member State has imposed or approved a duty contrary to Community law, it is required in principle to repay the duty levied in breach of Community law. If the proceeds of the duty have been allocated to independent operators subject to local authority control, it is not contrary to Community law for the action for repayment of those duties to lie against one of those operators, provided that the rules governing such actions are not less favourable than those governing similar domestic actions and are not so framed as to render virtually impossible or excessively difficult the recovery of duty unduly paid.

10 It is not contrary to Community law for a national limitation period applicable to claims for repayment of duties levied in breach of Article 95 of the Treaty or a provision similar to Article 18 of the Agreement concluded between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Sweden to run from an earlier point in time than that from which the duties were discontinued.

The laying down of reasonable limitation periods, which is an application of the fundamental principle of legal certainty, cannot be regarded as rendering virtually impossible or excessively difficult the exercise of rights conferred by Community law.