Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1 . Own resources of the European Communities - Post-clearance recovery of import or export duties - Customs administration error resulting in the use, for calculation of duties, of a rate indicated purely for guidance in a national customs tariff manual, which was incorrect - Error capable of detection by the trader concerned

( Council Regulation No 1697/79, Art . 5(2 ) )

2 . Own resources of the European Communities - Post-clearance recovery of import or export duties - Error deriving from "information" given by the competent authorities themselves - Definition

( Council Regulation No 1697/79, Art . 5(1 ) )

Summary

1 . A trader is not entitled to expect that, by virtue of Article 5(2 ) of Regulation No 1697/79, post-clearance recovery of import duties will not be effected where the customs administration' s error, from which the trader benefited, resulted from the fact that the administration failed to apply the Community tariff provisions published in the Official Journal of the European Communities and instead relied on a customs tariff manual for national use which was incorrect, in so far as it indicated a rate lower than that specified in the Community rules, since such an error is one of the kind referred to in the abovementioned regulation which the trader could reasonably have detected .

The Community tariff provisions constitute the only positive law in that field as from the date of their publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities, and everyone is deemed to know that law . A customs tariff manual drawn up by the national authorities is merely a guide for customs clearance operations . Secondly, an error as to the rate can be detected by a diligent trader through consultation of the Official Journal of the European Communities in which the relevant provisions are published .

2 . The first indent of Article 5(1 ) of Council Regulation ( EEC ) No 1697/79, pursuant to which no action for post-clearance recovery of import duties may be undertaken where the incorrect amount was calculated "on the basis of information given by the competent authorities themselves", must be interpreted as meaning that the word "information" does not refer to indications given in a document of a general nature addressed to unspecified persons but only to indications given by the competent authorities in a concrete case, to a particular trader, who is entitled to invoke the principle of legal certainty . That provision does not therefore include a tariff manual for national use which sets out the rules of national law and Community law, including those on the Common Customs Tariff .