. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/VAL/W/113
13 November 2002
(02-6271)
Committee on Customs Valuation Original:  English
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW OF CHINA BY THE
COMMITTEE ON CUSTOMS VALUATION
Statement by the Head of the Chinese Delegation
Thank you for giving me the floor.  Before I give the floor to my colleague to respond in
detail to the questions raised by Members prior to this meeting,  I would like to give a brief
introduction to this Committee on China's implementation of the Agreement on Customs Valuation.
Implementation of the Agreement on Customs Valuation is important and helpful to facilitate
the healthy development of the world trade by establishing a fair, neutral and uniform customs
valuation system.  Since accession, China has been carrying out its commitments in this regard in a
faithful manner through a wide range of steps including the streamlining of the legislation andimprovement on the administrative measures.  These efforts have effectively brought the principles
and procedures of China's customs valuation system in line with those enshrined in the Agreement on
Customs Valuation.
In advance of this meeting, information concerning use of valuation methods in China has
been provided to this Committee, as required by A nnex 1A to China's Protocol of Accession.  In order
to fulfill the notification obligations under the Agreement, China also provided the Committee with
the regulation implementing the Agreement on 1 July 2002, pursuant to Article 22 of the Agreement,
and responses to the checklist of issues regarding customs valuation according to the Decisions taken
by the Committee on 12 May 1995 and 25 April 1996.  I am sure this information provided has
already enabled Members to have a clear idea with regard to China's implementation of the
Agreement.
In response to the requirement of the WTO that the legislation of Members should embody
the basic principles and contents of the Agreement, the General Administration of Customs of the
People's Republic of China (GACC) revised the Rules Regarding Determination on Customs Value of
Imported and Exported Goods.  The revised Rules entered into force on 1 January 2002.  Afterrevision, provisions on valuation methods and procedur e in the Rules are in full consistency with the
Agreement.  Here I would like to note particularly the following two points:
Firstly, Articles 1 through 8 of the Agreement stipulates that the customs value of imported
goods shall be the transaction value.  When declared value cannot be accepted as transaction value indetermining the customs value, the customs shall apply the valuation methods as listed in the
Agreement in a sequential order.  This requirement has been fully reflected in Articles 3 though 11 of
the revised Rules Regarding Determination on Customs Value of Imported and Exported Goods.
Secondly, with a view to balancing the rights  and obligations between customs and importers
in determining customs value, the revised Rules speci fically provides for the right of appeal and etc.
on the importers' side, vis-à-vis  the right of verifying declared value as well as the obligation to keep
the information in confidentiality on the customs' side, as required by Article 10, 11, 13, 16 and 17 of
the Agreement.G/VAL/W/113
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With regard to implementation, China as a developing country, is confronted with many
constraints including the insufficient capability of investigation and evidence collecting, lack of
professionally trained personnel and etc.  Due to these constraints, the implementation of the
Agreement exposes China to a fairly heavy pressure of customs revenue decrease.  Despite that, China
has been implementing the Agreement in a faithful and effective manner.  Statistics show that fromJanuary to September this year the application of transaction value accounts for 94.89% of the total
dutiable imports declared.  In cases where the declared value can not be accepted as transaction value,
the Customs offices reassess the customs value strictly in accordance with the Rules, which embodies
the principle and procedure of the Agreement.
In this context, the Chinese government has also  made great efforts in capacity building.  A
series of related documents including the Agreement itself and other important publications by WTOand WCO have been translated and published in Chinese.  Training courses targeting at officials from
major local Customs offices have been organised by the General Administration of Customs to further
familiarize them with the Agreement and uniform implementation of domestic regulations.  Publicity
campaign and training for enterprises and customs declarers have strengthened.  China also benefited
from the technical assistance activities within the framework of the WCO and which therepresentative of WCO mentioned earlier, but I certain ly would like to take this opportunity to express
our appreciations to them.
Regarding the Decision on Treatment of Interest Charges in the Customs Value of Imported
Goods and the Decision on Valuation of Carrier Media Bearing Software for Data ProcessingEquipment, which China committed to accept in any event no later than two years from the date of
accession, preparations are being done to ensure their application by 11 December 2003.
Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the Secretariat for the
preparations done for this meeting and also for this  review process.  I now  would like to invite my
colleague to present detailed responses to questions raised to us in advance of the meeting, as well as
other questions Members would like to raise now, if there is any.
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