SC ALKA CO SRL v Autoritatea Națională a Vămilor - Direcția Regională pentru Accize și Operațiuni Vamale Galați and Direcţia Generală a Finanţelor Publice a Municipiului București.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Writing for the Court: Vajda
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2015:268
• Docket Number: C-635/13
• Date: 23 April 2015
• Procedure Type: Reference for a preliminary ruling

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Tenth Chamber)

23 April 2015 ( *1 )

‛Reference for a preliminary ruling — Common customs tariff — Tariff classification — Combined Nomenclature — Heading 1207 — Oilseeds — Heading 1209 — Seeds for sowing — Heading 1212 — Seeds principally used for human foodstuffs, not specified or included elsewhere — Import of raw shelled pumpkin seeds originating from China’

In Case C‑635/13,

REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Tribunalul București (Romania), made by decision of 17 April 2013, received at the Court on 4 December 2013, in the proceedings

SC ALKA CO SRL

v

Autoritatea Națională a Vămilor — Direcția Regională pentru Accize și Operațiuni Vamale Galați, formerly Autoritatea Națională a Vămilor — Direcția Regională pentru Accize și Operațiuni Vamale Constanța,

Direcţia Generală a Finanţelor Publice a Municipiului București,

THE COURT (Tenth Chamber),

composed of C. Vajda (Rapporteur), President of the Chamber, A. Rosas and E. Juhász, Judges,

Advocate General: J. Kokott,

Registrar: C. Strömholm, Administrator,

having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 4 February 2015,

after considering the observations submitted on behalf of:

— SC ALKA CO SRL, by C. Dobre, avocat,

— the Romanian Government, by R.H. Radu, V. Angelescu, D.M. Bulancea and C. Sobu, acting as Agents,

— the European Commission, by G.-D. Balan and A. Caeiros, acting as Agents,

having decided, after hearing the Advocate General, to proceed to judgment without an Opinion,

gives the following

Judgment

1 This request for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of the Combined Nomenclature (‘the CN’) set out in Annex I to 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), in the versions resulting, successively, from Commission Regulation (EC) No 1549/2006 of 17 October 2006 (OJ 2006 L 301, p. 1) and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1214/2007 of 20 September 2007 (OJ 2007 L 286, p. 1), and the interpretation of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying down provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code (OJ 1993 L 253, p. 1).

2 The request has been made in proceedings between SC ALKA CO SRL (‘ALKA’) and the Autoritatea Naţională a Vămilor — Direcţia Regională pentru Accize şi Operaţiuni Vamale Constanţa (National Customs Authority — Regional Directorate for excise and customs operations in Constanţa) and the Direcţia Generală a Finanţelor Publice a Municipiului București — Serviciul soluționare contestații (Directorate-General of Public Finances of the Municipality of Bucharest — Complaints’ service; together ‘the customs authority’) concerning the tariff classification of pumpkin seeds imported from China in the CN.

Legal context

The Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System

3 The Customs Cooperation Council, now the World Customs Organisation (WCO), was established by the convention creating that council, concluded in Brussels on 15 December 1950. The Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (‘the HS’) was drawn up by the WCO and established by the International Convention on the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (‘the HS Convention’) concluded in Brussels on 14 June 1983 and approved, with its amending protocol of 24 June 1986, on behalf of the European Economic Community by Council Decision 87/369/EEC of 7 April 1987 (OJ 1987 L 198, p. 1).

4 Under Article 3(1) of the HS Convention, each Contracting Party undertakes to ensure that its customs tariff and statistical nomenclatures will be in conformity with the HS, to use all the headings and subheadings of the HS without addition or modification, together with their related codes, and to follow the numerical sequence of that system. Each Contracting Party also undertakes to apply the General Rules for the interpretation of the HS and all the section, chapter and subheading notes of the HS, and not to modify their scope.

The CN

5 Regulation No 2658/87 established the CN, which is based on the HS, from which it takes the six-digit headings and subheadings, only the seventh and eighth digits forming subdivisions specific to the CN.

6 Under Article 12(1) of Regulation No 2658/87, as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2000 of 31 January 2000 (OJ 2000 L 28, p. 16), the European Commission is required to adopt each year a regulation reproducing the complete version of the CN and the rates of customs duty, as they result from measures adopted by the Council of the European Union or by the Commission. They are to apply from 1 January of the following calendar year.

7 The versions of the CN applicable to the imports at issue in the main proceedings, which were made between 19 February 2007 and 29 May 2008, are those resulting from Regulations Nos 1549/2006 and 1214/2007. The relevant provisions of the CN, which are set out below, are worded identically in each of those versions.

8 Part Two of the CN includes a Section II, entitled ‘Vegetable products’, which contains a Chapter 12, entitled ‘Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits; miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruit; industrial or medicinal plants; straw and fodder’, within which are headings 1207, 1209 and 1212 of the CN.

9 CN heading 1207 reads as follows:

CN codeDescription

Rate of duty

conventional (%)

…

1207

…

Other oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, whether or not broken:

…1207 20‐ Cotton seeds:1207 20 10‐ ‐ For sowing ……1207 20 90‐ ‐ Other…1207 40‐ Sesamum seeds:1207 40 10‐ ‐ for sowing…1207 40 90‐ ‐ Other…1207 50‐ Mustard seeds:1207 50 10‐ ‐ For sowing ……1207 50 90‐ ‐ Other…‐ Other:1207 91‐ ‐ Poppy seeds1207 91 10‐ ‐ For sowing ……1207 91 90‐ ‐ ‐ Other…1207 99‐ ‐ Other:1207 99 15‐ ‐ For sowing ……‐ ‐ ‐ Other:1207 99 91‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ Hemp seeds…1207 99 97‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ Otherexemption

10 CN heading 1209 reads as follows:

CN codeDescription

Rate of duty

conventional (%)

…

1209

…

Seeds, fruit and spores, of a kind used for sowing:

…1209 10 00‐ Sugar beet seeds…‐ Seeds of forage plants……..1209 30 00‐ Seeds of herbaceous plants cultivated principally for their flowers…‐ Other:1209 91– – Vegetable seeds1209 91 10– – – Kohlrabi seeds (Brassica oleracea, var. caulorapa and gongylodes L.)…1209 91 30– – – Salad beet seed or beetroot seed (Beta vulgaris var. conditiva)…1209 91 90– – – Other3………

11 CN heading 1212 reads as follows:

CN code	Description	Rate of duty conventional (%)
… 1212	… Locust beans, seaweeds and other algae, sugar beet and sugar cane, fresh, chilled, frozen or dried, whether or not ground; fruit stones and kernels and other vegetable products (including unroasted chicory roots of the variety Cichorium intybus sativum) of a kind used primarily for human consumption, not elsewhere specified or included:	…
1212 20 00	– Seaweeds and other algae	…
	– Other:
1212 91	– – Sugar beet
…	…	…
1212 99	– – Other:
1212 99 20	– – – Sugar cane	…
1212 99 30	– – – Locust beans (carob)	…
…	…	…
1212 99 70	– – – Other	exemption

12 Part One of the CN consists of a number of preliminary provisions. In that part, under Section I, which contains the general rules, Subsection A, entitled ‘General rules for the interpretation of the Combined Nomenclature’, provides: ‘Classification of goods in the [CN] shall be governed by the following principles: The titles of sections, chapters and sub-chapters are provided for ease of reference only; for legal purposes, classification shall be determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes and, provided such headings or notes do not otherwise require, according to the following provisions. …’

13 Notes 1 and 3 to Chapter 12 of the CN, which concern headings 1207 and 1209 respectively of that nomenclature, provide: ‘1. Heading 1207 applies, inter alia, to palm nuts and kernels, cotton seeds, castor oil seeds, sesamum seeds, mustard seeds, safflower seeds, poppy seeds and shea nuts (karite nuts). It does not apply to products of heading 0801 or 0802 or to olives (Chapter 7 or 20). … 3. For the purposes of heading No 1209, beet seeds, grass and other herbage seeds, seeds of ornamental flowers, vegetable seeds, seeds of forest trees, seeds of fruit trees, seeds of vetches (other than those of the species Vicia faba) or of lupines are to be regarded as “seeds of a kind used for sowing”. Heading 1209 does not, however, apply to the following, even if for sowing: … (d) products of headings 1201 to 1207 or 1211.’

The explanatory notes to the HS

14 Pursuant to the second indent of Article 9(1)(a) of Regulation No 2658/87, the Commission draws up explanatory notes to the CN, which it publishes regularly in the Official Journal of the European Union. Those published on 28 February 2006 (OJ 2006 C 50, p. 1), applicable at the time of the imports at issue in the main proceedings, contain three notes relating to subheadings 1207 99 98, 1209 91 90 and 1212 99 80 of the CN.

15 It must be noted that the numbering of those headings within those explanatory notes referred to the numbering of the CN resulting from Commission Regulation (EC) No 1719/2005 of 27 October 2005 amending...