Ospig Textilgesellschaft KG W. Ahlers v Hauptzollamt Bremen-Ost (7/83)

II —Relevant Community provisions

By Council Decision No 80/271/EEC of 10 December 1979 concerning the conclusion of the Multilateral Agreements resulting from the 1973 to 1979 trade negotiations (Official Journal 1980, L 71, p. 1) the Council approved in particular, on behalf of the Community, the Agreement on implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Official Journal 1980, L 71, p. 107).The Agreement, which lays down rules for facilitating international trade by removing barriers to such trade arising from the application of different methods of customs valuation, introduces the transaction value as the basis for the customs valuation of goods.By the adoption of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1224/80 of 28 May 1980 on the valuation of goods for customs purposes (Official Journal, L 134, p. 1), amending Regulation (EEC) No 803/68 of 27 June 1968 (Official Journal, English Special Edition 1968 (I), p. 170), the Council decided to implement the provisions of the aforesaid agreement as from 1 July 1980.Regulation No 1244/80 of 28 May 1980 was amended by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3193/80 of 8 December 1980 (Official Journal, L 333, p. 1).Article 3 (1) of Regulation No 1244/80 provides as follows :“The customs value of imported goods determined under this article shall be the transaction value, that is, the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the customs territory of the Community, adjusted in accordance with Article 8 ...”.Article 8 lists exhaustively the items which must be added to the “price actually paid or payable” for imported goods; quota charges are not included therein.Under Article 3 (3) (a) of Regulation No 1224/80, as amended:“The price actually paid or payable is the total payment made or to be made by the buyer to or for the benefit of the seller for the imported goods and includes all payments made or to be made as a condition of sale of the imported goods by the buyer to the seller or by the buyer to a third party to satisfy an obligation of the seller. The payment need not necessarily take the form of a transfer of money. Payment may be made by way of letters of credit or negotiable instruments and may be made directly or indirectly.”Article 3 (4) and Article 15 of the regulation exclude from the customs value certain charges, amongst which quota charges are not mentioned.