Opinion of Advocate General Van Gerven delivered on 10 July 1990

1 Original language: Dutch.

2 OJ 1985 L 140, p. 7.

3 The customs tariff applicable at the time of the facts is that contained in the Annex to Council Regulation (EEC) No 3618/86 of 24 November 1986 amending Regulation (EEC) No 3331/85 amending Regulation (EEC) No 950/68 on the Common Customs Tariff (OJ 1986 L 345, p. 1).

4 Council Regulation (EEC) No 97/69 of 16 January 1969 on measures to be taken for uniform application of the nomenclature of the Common Customs Tariff (OJ, English Special Edition 1969 (I), p. 12), as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2055/84 of 16 July 1984 (OJ 1984 L 191, p. 1). Regulation No 97/69 has since been repealed by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (OJ 1987 L 256, p. 1).

5 For the Community's obligations in this matter see the judgment in Case 38/75 Nederlandse Spoorwegen v Inspecteur der invoerrechten en accijnzen [1975] ECR 1439.

6 According to the second recital, second sentence, of Regulation No 97/69 the provisions should specify the content of the headings or subheading of the Common Customs Tariff without, however, amending the text thereof

7 See the judgments in Case 37/75 Bagmat [1975] ECR 1339, Case 158/78 Biegi [1979] ECR 1103, Joined Cases 87, 112 and 113/89 Bagusat [1980] ECR 1159 and Case 141/86 Imperial Tobacco [1988] ECR 57

8 See, inter alia, the judgment in Case C-233/88 Gijs van de Kolb v Inspecteur der invoerrechten en accijnzen [1990] ECR I-265, paragraph 12, in which the Court referred to its judgment in Case 38/76 Luma v Hauptzollamt Duisburg [1976] ECR 2027, paragraph 7

9 Let us take a caricatural example: The Commission may not, by way of clarification of the Common Customs Tariff, classify a bicycle as a motor vehicle on the basis of the criterion — which is certainly objective and easy to verify — that a bicycle, like a motor vehicle, has wheels. That criterion docs not take account of the essential characteristic adopted by the Common Customs Tariff, namely that it is driven not by a motor but by pedals (see the Explanatory Notes of the Customs Cooperation Council to Heading 87.12 of the Customs Cooperation Council nomenclature)

10 In Van Dale, Groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal, (revised 11th Edition) the word pulp is defined, as in the Explanatory Notes of the Customs Cooperation Council, as the product which remains after extraction of the sugar and surplus water from sliced sugar beet. In Le Petit Robert, dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française, 1986 Edition, the term pulp is defined as the paste-like residue from the processing of certain vegetables in the sugar and distilling industries.

11 Case 129/81 Fancon v SIAT [1982] ECR 967, paragraph 14).

12 Case 268/87 Cargill v Inspecteur der Invoerrechten en Accijnzen [1988] ECR 5151, paragraph 11).

13 In this case the Inspector demanded levies amounting to several times the value of the imported beet pulp pellets (see paragraph 3).

14 See the judgment in Fancon, cited above.