Opinion of Mr advocate-general Roemer delivered on 30 October 1962

1 Translated from the German.

2 According to Dalloz, Petit Dictionnaire de Droit (1951, p. 488), customs duties, in so far as they are not duties of a fiscal character, are intended in the case of imports to compensate for the difference existing between the price of foreign imported products and that of similar French products. Allix, Traité élémentaire de science des Finances et de Legislation financière francaise (6th ed., 1931, p. 865) considers that one important object of protective customs duties is the protection of domestic industry against foreign competition. In the Handwörterbuch der Rechtswissenschaft by Stier-Somlo, Elster (1929, Vol. VI p. 1035) customs duty is defined as a charge to be levied on the occasion of the crossing of the border of a State. If it is a question of a protective duty, it has the function of making competition more difficult in order to protect domestic production. Finally in the Handbuch der Finanzwissenschaft (1952, Vol. II, p. 725) we find the following definition: Import duties are charges which are levied upon the import into a customs territory of all goods or of specified goods.

3 Handbuch der Finanzwissensckaft, ibid. p. 726: One speaks of countervailing duties when supplementary duties are levied on goods, for the production, manufacture or exportation of which grants or subsidies are granted directly or indirectly; these duties normally reach the level of the estimated amount of the grants or subsidies. Import duties or analogous charges which are intended to compensate for the charge imposed on domestic production by internal taxation in relation to foreign competition are also classed as countervailing duties.

4 Hübschmann-Hepp-Spitaler, Kommentar zur Reichsabgabenordnung (1st to 4th ed., 1961, Vol. 1, p. 4, para. 1).

5 Rejoinder, p. 38.