Subject
Common Customs Tariff — Tariff classification — Combined Nomenclature — Chapter 64 — Import of components required for the manufacture of sports footwear — Heading 6404 — Footwear with outer soles of rubber, plastics, leather or composition leather and uppers of textile materials — Heading 6406 — Parts of footwear — General Rule 2(a) for the Interpretation of the Combined Nomenclature — Incomplete or unfinished article having the ‘essential character of the complete or finished article’ — Article ‘presented unassembled or disassembled’ — Explanatory Note for the interpretation of the Harmonised System — Assembly operations and not ‘working operations for completion into the finished state’
Summary and operative part
On those grounds, the Court (Sixth Chamber) hereby rules: General Rule 2(a) for the interpretation of the Combined Nomenclature set out in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, in the version in force at the material time, must be interpreted as meaning that an upper, an outer sole and an inner sole, as an article presented unassembled having the essential character of footwear, come under heading 6404 of the combined nomenclature where, following their import, a counter must be inserted into the upper and the outer sole and the upper must be roughed for the purpose of their assembly. [Signatures] ( *1 ) Language of the case: French.