C-268/87
ECLI:EU:C:1988:315
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OPINION OF MR DARMON — CASE 268/87
O P I N I O N O F M R ADVOCATE GENERAL D A R M O N delivered on 15 June 1988 *
Mr President, B. Of leguminous vegetables', Members of the Court,
does not seem to me to be applicable here. 1. By an order for reference of 6 April Soya beans are neither seeds nor legu- 1987, the Tariefcommissie asked the Court minous vegetables. to say under which heading of the Common Customs Tariff milled soya-bean covers are to be classified. The goods concerned are the coats, that is to say the husks — or yet 5. Heading 23.07 likewise does not seem again the skins — which surround· the capable of covering the goods in question kernels, as opposed to the tegument because it refers to sweetened forage, and properly so called. soya covers do not fall into that category.
2. In the course of the written procedure 6. Two subheadings remain: 23.04 B and and the oral proceedings before the Court, 23.06 B. The first refers to 'Oil-cake and it was explained that two techniques were other residues (except dregs) resulting from used to separate the covers from the beans: the extraction of vegetable oils'. an older method, which facilitates sepa- ration after the oil extraction ('tail-end dehulling') and a modern method in which the husks are removed before 7. The difficulty to be resolved is embodied commencement of the extraction process in the question whether soya husks can ('head-end dehulling'). be regarded as ' r e s i d u e s . . . resulting from . . . extraction'. Must that expression be taken to include 'waste' deriving from 3. Four tariff classifications were mentioned extraction or the specific result of the by the national court as possibly covering extraction of oil? the goods in question.
8. I am inclined to favour the second 4. Firstly, subheading 23.02 B, which refers solution: it must be considered — the view to the following products: taken by the Commission — that the only products coming under subheading 23.04 B are those resulting from the extraction of oil 'Bran, sharps and other residues derived strictu sensu. By contrast, residues from the from the sifting, milling or working of whole process of treating soya beans are cereals or of leguminous vegetables: to be excluded from that subheading. Furthermore, in its judgment in Fancon, 1 the Court stated in relation to that A. . . . subheading:
1 — Judgment of 11 March 1982 in Case 129/81 [1982] ECR * Translated from the French. 967, paragraph 14.
CARGILL v INSPECTEUR DER INVOERRECHTEN EN ACCIJNZEN
'the term "residue" is not to be confused necessary residues of the oil extraction with that of "waste " '. 'produced' by that operation itself, such as oil-cake or olive husks. Finally, it should be 9. Moreover, no doubt can arise where the noted that the soya teguments could in technique known as 'head-end dehulling' is theory be obtained independently from the used since it involves separation before extraction process, which is not the case as extraction of the oil. But the technique of far as oil-cake is concerned. 'tail-end dehulling' does not raise any obstacles to that solution. In any event, as 10. Consequently, it is inappropriate, the Commission points out, the covers exist contrary to the view put forward by the before the oil extraction and a distinct plaintiff in the main proceedings, to process must be undertaken after extraction undertake complex estimations according to in order to remove the coats. It should the technique used: whatever the circum- therefore be noted that there is a very clear stances, milled soya-bean covers do not fall difference between the latter and the within subheading 23.04 B.
11. The foregoing considerations thus prompt me to propose that the Court rule that those products fall within subheading 23.06 B which corresponds to
'Products of vegetable origin of a kind used for animal food, not elsewhere specified or included:
A. . . .
B. Other.'