Case C‑4/15

Staatssecretaris van Financiën

v

Argos Supply Trading BV

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden)

‛Reference for a preliminary ruling — Customs union — Common Customs Tariff — Customs procedures with economic impact — Outward processing — Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 — Article 148(c) — Issue of authorisation — Economic conditions — Absence of serious harm to the essential interests of Community processors — Concept of ‘Community processors’)’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber), 21 July 2016

1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Submission during the procedure before the Court of a factual background different from that described in the referring judgment — Obligation of the Court to confine itself to the factual background as set out in that judgment

   (Art. 267 TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 23)

2. Free movement of goods — Trade with non-member countries — Outward processing system — Scope — Processing operations carried out on the high seas — Included

   (Council Regulation No 2913/92, Art. 145)

3. Free movement of goods — Trade with non-member countries — Outward processing system — Conditions of authorisation — No harm the essential interests of Community processors — Meaning — Community producers of products analogous to the basic products or to intermediate non-EU products to be incorporated in Community goods temporarily exported during the processing — Included

   (Council Regulation No 2913/92, Art. 148(c))

1.  See the text of the decision.

   (see para. 29)

2.  In view of the wording of Article 145 of Regulation No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code, the outward processing procedure may apply where the operations take place outside the customs territory of the European Union. Accordingly, the fact that the operations took place in the high seas is not such as to preclude application of the provisions of that regulation relating to that customs procedure with economic impact.

   (see para. 31)

3.  Article 148(c) of Regulation No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code must be interpreted as meaning that, in the context of a request for authorisation to use the outward processing procedure, in order to assess whether the economic conditions governing the use of that procedure are satisfied, it is necessary to take account not only of the essential interests of Community producers of products analogous to the finished product resulting from the envisaged processing operations, but also of those of Community producers of products analogous to the basic products or to the intermediate non-EU products intended to be incorporated in the Community goods temporarily exported during those operations.

   The economic conditions governing the use of the outward processing procedure contained in Article 148(c) of Regulation No 2913/92 serve to enable the customs authorities to assess whether the use of the outward processing procedure is essentially favourable to the EU industry, while ensuring that the benefits which a trader would derive from that procedure do not result, in return, in significant disadvantages for other EU producers. Those economic conditions must therefore be construed in a manner that allows the customs authorities to take full account of such conflicts of interest within the EU industry.

   As regards conflicts of interest, in circumstances in which the processing operation envisaged involves the inclusion, in temporarily exported Community goods, of a significant quantity of a non-Community basic product, and in which the customs duties relating to that basic product are significantly higher than those applicable to the compensating product obtained at the conclusion of that operation, it is necessary to state that the use of the outward processing procedure for that operation is also capable of seriously harming the essential interests of traders producing that basic product within the European Union.

   To carry out that same processing operation outside the European Union would allow an operator to import into the European Union the portion corresponding to that basic product while avoiding the payment of customs duties applicable to that basic product, which duties are designed specifically to protect those Community producers from such imports. In that situation, the benefit of the outward processing procedure would provide an additional advantage to the trader requesting that procedure, consisting in the partial exemption which it would obtain from the customs duties applicable to the compensating product, thus rendering more advantageous that type of operation, which nonetheless has an adverse effect on the interests of EU producers.

   (see paras 41, 43, 44, 49, operative part)