Comptroller-General of Customs v Pharm-A-Care Laboratories P/L [2020] HCA 2

CUSTOMS AND EXCISE – Customs tariff – Tariff classification – Where no duty owed if goods classifiable as medicaments under heading 3004 of Sch 3 to Customs Tariff Act 1995 (Cth) – Where Administrative Appeals Tribunal found vitamin preparations and garcinia preparations classifiable under heading 3004 – Where Comptroller-General of Customs contended vitamin preparations and garcinia preparations classifiable under heading 1704 ("sugar confectionery") or heading 2106 ("food preparations") so that duty owed – Whether vitamin preparations and garcinia preparations excluded from heading 3004 by Note 1(a) to Ch 30 of Sch 3 to Customs Tariff Act – Whether Administrative Appeals Tribunal erred in classifying vitamin preparations and garcinia preparations under heading 3004.

WORDS AND PHRASES – "duties of customs", "error of law", "essential character", "food preparations", "food supplements", "foods", "French language", "Harmonized System", "Harmonized System Convention", "medicament", "most akin", "ordinary meaning", "products for therapeutic or prophylactic uses", "tariff classification", "Vienna Convention", "vitamin".

Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth), s 44.
Customs Act 1901 (Cth), s 273GA.
Customs Tariff Act 1995 (Cth), Schs 2, 3.
International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (1983).
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969), Art 33.