No tariff preferences for mixed goods?

In May, the Hamburg Finance Court referred a question to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the granting of preferential tariffs. The point here was that preferential goods were mixed with goods from other preferential countries during transport. Overall, the ship only contained preferential goods (crude palm kernel oil), for which different export countries and certificates of origin were available.

The defendant’s main customs office was of the opinion that the mixing of different goods constituted a violation of Art. 74 (1) sentence 1 of the Customs Code Implementing Regulation (CCIP).

The products declared for release for free circulation in the European Union must therefore be the same as those exported from the beneficiary country with a certificate of origin. The main customs office had denied the identity in this respect, even though all goods transported came from countries for which GSP tariff preferences were granted.

The Hamburg Finance Court has now referred the question as to what extent mixing preferences can be omitted to the European Court of Justice. In the past, it turned out that there were different legal opinions between the main customs offices in Germany. Some main customs offices had not objected in the past if several batches of the same product were mixed with several certificates of origin at export, provided they came from the same country of origin. However, the present case is special in that it concerns cargoes originating in different countries.

Dieser Artikel wurde am 15. August 2018 erstellt. Er wurde am 16. July 2020 aktualisiert. Die fachliche Zweitprüfung hat Rechtsanwalt Dr. Tristan Wegner durchgeführt.