Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions)

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Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Pigmeat - Fresh, chilled or frozen pigmeat from non-member countries - Health inspections organized in accordance with Article 9 of Directive 64/433 - Dues - Whether permissible - Derogation from the prohibition of charges having equivalent effect - Non-discrimination between the system of intra-Community trade and that of trade with non-member countries
( Regulation No 121/67 of the Council, Art . 17(2 ); Council Directive 64/433, Art . 9 )

Article 17(2 ) of Regulation No 121/67, in force at the material time referred to by the national court, prohibits, save as otherwise provided in the regulation or where derogation therefrom is decided by the Council, the levying of any customs duty or charge having equivalent effect . Pecuniary charges, whatever their amount, imposed for reasons to do with health inspections of pigs and pigmeat imported from non-member countries, are to be regarded as charges having equivalent effect within the meaning of that provision unless they relate to a general system of internal taxation applied systematically in accordance with the same criteria and at the same stage of marketing to domestic and imported products alike, since the concept of charge having an effect equivalent to customs duties has the same meaning in the regulations on the organization of the agricultural market as it has in Article 9 of the Treaty ( see judgment of 7 March 1972 in Case 84/71 Merimex (( 1972 )) ECR 89 ).
That provision must however be combined with Article 9 of Directive 64/433, which was applicable at the material time referred to by the national court, and from this conjunction it may be seen that, as regards veterinary and public health inspections of fresh, chilled or frozen pigmeat from non-member countries, there is a derogation from the prohibition on the imposition of health inspection charges to the extent necessary to ensure non-discriminatory treatment, on the one hand, of traders who put fresh meat on the market in intra-Community trade and thereby become liable to pay health inspection charges in the exporting Member State, and, on the other hand, of those who import from non-member countries, provided that those charges do not exceed the actual cost of the inspections ( see judgment of 28 June 1978 in Case 70/77 Simmenthal (( 1978 )) ECR 1453 ).

In Case 214/88
REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty by the corte d' appello di Venezia ( Court of Appeal, Venice ) for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between
Amministrazione delle finanze dello Stato, in the person of the Minister for Finance pro tempore
and
Società Politi & Co . srl, in liquidation, in the person of the liquidator, E . Gatti,
on the interpretation of certain provisions of Council Directive 64/433/EEC of 26 June 1964 on health problems affecting intra-Community trade in fresh meat and Regulation No 121/67/EEC of the Council of 13 June 1967 on the common organization of the market in pigmeat,
THE COURT ( Third Chamber )
composed of : F . Grévisse, President of the Chamber, J.C . Moitinho de Almeida and M . Zuleeg, Judges,
( The grounds of the judgment are not reproduced .)
in answer to the questions referred to it by the corte d' appello di Venezia by order of 30 June 1988, hereby rules :

Article 9 of Directive 64/433/EEC in conjunction with Article 17(2 ) of Regulation No 121/67 constitutes, with regard to health and animal-health inspections carried out on imports of fresh, chilled or frozen pigmeat from non-member countries, a derogation from the prohibition of the imposition of health inspection charges to the extent necessary to ensure non-discriminatory treatment, on the one hand, of traders who, in the course of intra-Community trade, place fresh meat on the market and thereby become liable to pay health inspection charges in the exporting Member State and, on the other, of traders who import such products from non-member countries, provided that those charges do not exceed the actual cost of the inspection .