"The Standing Requirements for Bringing a Direct Action before the General Court in the Field of Trade Defence and Customs Following the Entry into Force of the TFEU" [2011] ELECD 786; in Govaere, Inge; Quick, Reinhard; Bronckers, Marco (eds), "Trade and Competition Law in the EU and Beyond" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Trade and Competition Law in the EU and Beyond

Editor(s): Govaere, Inge; Quick, Reinhard; Bronckers, Marco

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857935663

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: The Standing Requirements for Bringing a Direct Action before the General Court in the Field of Trade Defence and Customs Following the Entry into Force of the TFEU

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

18. The standing requirements for
bringing a direct action before the
General Court in the field of trade
defence and customs following the
entry into force of the TFEU
Philippe De Baere

18.1 INTRODUCTION

Companies importing products originating in third countries into the EU
customs territory may be confronted with an increase in the import duties
payable upon importation due to a reclassification of the imported product
under a new tariff line or as a result of the imposition of trade defence
measures such as antidumping duties. In certain cases, the new duty level
may even make the continuation of the import activity commercially non-
viable and force importers to close their business. Yet, the judicial remedies
available to such importers under the EC Treaty used to be limited, costly
and time-consuming. In fact, under the rules applicable before the entry into
force of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),
importers had to challenge the application by the customs authorities of the
measure imposing the higher duty, in most cases a Commission or Council
regulation, before the national courts of each member state of importation
and invoke in the context of this national procedure the illegality of the
underlying Community act. Importers then had to hope that at least one
national court would eventually refer the question on the legality of the
classification or antidumping regulation to the Court of Justice1 by means of
a request for a preliminary ruling.2

1
The Court ...