Opinion of Advocate General Gulmann delivered on 13 May 1993

1 Originai language: Danish.

2 Sec Annex 1 io Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3174/88 of 21 September 1988 amending Annex 1 to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (OJ 1988 L 298, p 1).

3 The first and second paragraphs of the Explanatory Notes to the Harmonized System relating to heading 7211 arc worded as follows: This heading covers the same kind of products described in heading 72.08 or 72.09 but, to fall in this heading, they must be of a width of less than 600 mm. The provisions of the Explanatory Notes to headings 72.08 and 72.09 apply, mutatis mutandis, to products of this heading except those relating to width ... The 10th and 11th paragraphs of the Explanatory Notes to the Harmonized System relating to heading 72.08 read as follows: For the purposes of this heading, wide flats are products of rectangular (other than square) cross-section, not in coils, hot-rolled on four faces in a closed box pass or universal mill, of a thickness of not less than 4 mm, and of a width of 600 mm or more but not exceeding 1250 mm. Therefore, wide flats have much straighter and more accurately finished sides and sharper edges than those of wide coil, sheets or plates. They are never re-rolled but are used in structural steelwork, etc., without further machining of the edges.

4 Sec order for reference, p. 8.

5 Case 40/88 Weber ν Mildmerke Paderborn-Rimbeck [1989] ECR 1395, at paragraph 13, and the judgments cited by-Advocate General Tesauro in his Opinion in that case (at p. 1404, point 3).

6 Sec Case 40/88 Wrier, at paragraphs 14 and 15, and Case 38/76 Luna ν Hauplzollaml Duisburg [1976) ECR 2027.

7 I'hc German customs authorities argued in their written observations that it followed more specifically from the English version that the customs heading regarded the objee live properties of the finished product as significant. The English version is worded as follows: ... other, not further worked than hot-rolled: — rolled on four faces or in a closed box pass, .... I find it difficult to sec how tile English version could lead to a different result from the one I have expressed.