The principle objective behind the establishment of the European Community was to establish a Common Market which was built on a Customs Union. This objective of economic integration is set out in Article 2 of the European Convention which details the aims of the common market ; Article 3 goes on to lay down the requirements that must be effected to enable these objectives. The enabling of free movement of goods through Member States is the primary concept of a customs union. All goods should be able to move between all Member States freely from producer to supplier, from importer to supplier and from supplier to supplier without the payment of custom duties which would otherwise be the norm.
The free movement of goods principle goes beyond the original concept of Free Trade. It was solely the creation of the Common Market which achieved the abolition of internal customs duties and trade restrictions on goods moving between one Member State and another. It also established the external customs tariff concept; this establishes the principle that goods being imported into the Common Market from a third party will be subject to payment of the common customs duty. This is addressed in Article 23 which sets down that all imported goods from outside the Community will be subject to the same import tariff regardless of which member state they are imported to or exported from. However once these goods have been imported into the Member State and the appropriate duty paid they then should be allowed to move freely without any further payment imposed upon them.
The free movement of goods is the cornerstone of the European Community and is at the heart of the EC Treaty and in fact it was not until July 1968 that this was achieved. Article 14 of the EC Treaty describes the internal market. It states that the internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the...