C-150/93
ECLI:EU:C:1994:31
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DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL DES DOUANES ET DROITS INDIRECTS v SUPERIOR FRANCE AND DANZAS
OPINION OF MR ADVOCATE GENERAL TESAURO delivered on 27 January 1994 *
Mr President, outer surface of plastic sheeting. The national Members of the Court, authorities then claimed payment of the higher duty and taxes payable under those subheadings.
1. This case concerns the classification for customs purposes of travel goods — attaché cases, travel bags and suitcases — in cellular 3. In the action brought by the companies plastic (PVC) reinforced inside with syn concerned against the reclassification of the thetic fabric (viscose polyester, cotton poly goods, the Cour d'Appel, Paris, stayed the ester) or natural fabric (cotton). proceedings and referred to the Court for a preliminary ruling a question on the inter pretation of the provisions of the combined nomenclature.
2. When the items in question were imported, they were classified on the basis of declarations made by the customs agent (Danzas) on behalf of the importer (Superior SA France) under subheadings 42.02.12.91, It is apparent from the order for reference 42.02.12.99 and 42.02.92.91 of the Common that the items in question, being travel Customs Tariff (hereinafter referred to as goods, fall indisputably within Chapter 42.02 'the CCT') relating to travel goods with of the CCT. outer surface of textile material.
The national court states, however, that the However, following checks carried out by external surface of those items is composed of the customs service, the French authorities plastic (PVC) sheeting, internally reinforced reclassified the items in question under CCT with fabric. Since Chapter 42.02 provides for subheadings 42.02.22.10, 42.02.12.19 and separate subheadings according to whether 42.02.12.11 relating to travel goods with the external surface of travel goods is in plas tic or textile material, the Cour d'Appel, Paris, considers it necessary to determine * Original language: Italian. into which of those two categories of
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subheadings the items in dispute should fall, endorsed, is that the textile material does not since they have a surface of both materials give the goods in question their essential combined. character since it is present merely in order to reinforce the plastic sheeting used to form the outer surface.
It follows that the question submitted by the national court must be understood as seeking to ascertain whether, for the purposes of the application of the subheadings in Chapter 6. Support for that argument is also to be 1 42.02 of the CCT, goods such as those found primarily in the Sportex judgment, in described in the order for reference — that is which the Court considered, with respect to to say, travel goods with outer surface of a product composed of different materials, plastic (PVC) sheeting internally reinforced that the presence of a constituent for the with fabric — are to be regarded as goods purpose of reinforcement only, even if it with outer surface of plastic or, on the con forms a high percentage of the product, does trary, of textile material. not give that product its essential characteris tics and cannot therefore have any bearing on its classification for customs purposes.
4. In that connection, it should be borne in mind that, in accordance with General Rule 2(b) on the interpretation of the com 7. Furthermore, that argument is also sup bined nomenclature, 'any reference in a ported by certain factors which may be heading to a material shall be taken to deduced from the Explanatory Notes of the include a reference to mixtures or combina Customs Cooperation Council, and from the tions of that material with other materials'. Explanatory Notes to the CCT, those docu With reference to mixtures or composite ments constituting, as is well known, an aid goods consisting of different materials, 2 to interpreting the headings of the CCT. Rule 3(b) provides that these are to be clas sified, where possible, 'as if they consisted of the material or component which gives them their essential character'.
It is apparent from those notes that if goods are made of plastic combined with a textile material which is present merely for rein forcement purposes, the presence of the fab 5. In accordance with those criteria, it is ric has no bearing on the classification for necessary to determine whether in this case it is the plastic or the textile material that gives travel goods their essential character. In that regard, the argument put forward by both 1 — Judgment in Case C-253/87 Sportex [1988] ECR 3351. the Commission and the French Govern 2 — See the judgment in Case 234/81 Du Pout de Nemours [1982] ECR 3515, and in Case 237/81 Almadent [1982] ECR ment, and which I believe should be fully 2981.
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customs purposes (see the Explanatory sheets or strips of rubber, are to be regarded Notes of the Customs Cooperation Council as providing reinforcement. There is no rea on Chapters 39 and 40, and also Note 2(a)(5) son why that definition, laid down in the to Chapter 59 and Note 3(c) to Chapter 56 context of Chapter 40 (Articles in Rubber), of the CCT). As the Commission has should not apply by analogy in the context pointed out, therefore, it must as a rule be of Chapter 39 (Articles in Plastic), all the determined, in the context of the CCT, more so since in a recent amendment, though subsequent to the facts of the case, the Cus whether or not the textile component merely toms Cooperation Council restated in the reinforces the plastic; the classification of the context of Chapter 39 the definition of 'rein item as a whole as either a textile or a plastic forcement' already provided for in the con product depends on it. The concept of 'rein text of Chapter 40. In this particular case, forcement' is further defined in the Explana there can be no doubt that the textile com tory Notes of the Customs Cooperation ponent, which is used exclusively for the Council on Chapter 40; according to those purposes of reinforcement and only on the notes, textile products which are untreated, inner surface of the goods in dispute, fully unbleached, bleached or uniformly dyed, corresponds to the aforesaid definition of where applied to one surface only of plates, 'reinforcement'.
8. In the light of those observations, I consider that the Court should reply to the national court as follows:
For the purposes of the application of the subheadings in Chapter 42.02 of the CCT , goods such as those described in the order for reference — that is to say, travel goods with outer surface of plastic material ( PVC ) internally reinforced with fabric — are to be regarded as goods with outer surface of plastic and not of textile material.
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