RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/VAL/M/32/Corr.11
3 February 2003
(03-0694)
Committee on Customs Valuation
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF 4 – 5 NOVEMBER 2002
Chairman:  Mr. Raimundas Karoblis (Lithuania)
Corrigendum
The following Annexshould be incorporated into the minutes of the above meeting.
_______________
Annex I
Report by the representative of the World Cust oms Organization on the activities of the
Technical Committee on Customs Valuation a nd valuation technical assistance programmes
I am reporting to you today on behalf of the Chairperson of the TCCV and also the WCO
Secretariat. I will begin by briefing you on the 15th Session of the Technical Committee which was
held at WCO Headquarters from 21 to 24 October 2002.
The Technical Committee undertook an examination of the draft Exchange of Valuation
Information Guide which had been presented by me to this Committee at its last meeting.  I am
pleased to report that after a lengthy and robust discussion, the Technical Committee made significant
progress on the draft guide.  There was substantial support in the Technical Committee for the need
for such a guide.  Specific areas of discussion focussed on the fact that the document was merely aguide and not a binding instrument; and that export value cannot be substituted for import value.  The
Technical Committee agreed that when an importing Customs administration still has reason to doubt
the truth or accuracy of a declared value after foll owing the procedures set out in the Guide, it could,
consistent with Decision 6.1, reject the transaction value.  In such a case, it would not be necessary to
request export value information for verification purposes.  Requests for export value informationwould therefore be relevant only when there is a suspicion of fraud.  Further, the Technical
Committee recognized that exchange of value information was only one of a number of steps that
should be examined in assisting developing countries in building capacity and fully implementing the
Valuation Agreement.  The WCO Secretariat has been asked to prepare a revised version of the draft
guide based on the comments made during the meeting.  The amended version will be examined at the16
th Session of the Technical Committee and it is expected that it will be finalised at that time.  The
WTO Valuation Committee will also be invited to comment on the Guide and its use.
The Chairperson of the Technical Committee and the WCO Secretariat were also asked to
discuss the role of the Technical Committee with the WTO Committee on Customs Valuation withinthe context of Doha Ministerial Decision 8.3 to report back to the Technical Committee on this
matter.
The Technical Committee also discussed the draft programme for the theme meeting to be
held during its 16
th Session in April 2003.  This programme will focus on the valuation management
                                                     
1 In English only.G/VAL/M/32/Corr.1
Page 2
of specific technical issues.  The Technical Committee  agreed to a panel discussion format for the
theme meeting.  The WCO Secretariat will be liais ing with the International Chamber of Commerce
to recruit appropriate private sector presenters as well as presenters from some international
organisations, for example, OECD and WIPO.
The Technical Committee examined a number of technical issues.  These were studies on the
valuation treatment of rented or leased goods;  the valuation treatment of importations by sole traders,
sole distributors and sole concessionaires and the expression "sale for export".
In regard to the valuation treatment of rented or leased goods, the Technical Committee
examined the valuation of leased goods with respect to the WTO Valuation Agreement and guarantee
requirements as well as duty implications.  The Technical Committee examined this issue and it was
agreed that the treatment of leased goods had to be separated into two issues: (1) the valuation of the
goods and (2) the procedural treatment, that is to say, whether the full amount of duty due must be
paid at the time of importation or whether deferred or partial payment was appropriate.  The Technical
Committee determined that each administration was at liberty to address the issue of deferred or
partial payment, and that the valuation treatm ent in the current instruments was adequate.
Consequently, the Technical Committee agreed that no further discussion was necessary on the issue.
In discussing the issue of valuation treatment of importations by sole traders, sole distributors,
sole concessionaires, the Technical Committee decided to carry the issue over to the 16th Session of
the Technical Committee and the discussions being held here in Geneva on Tiret 6-1 will help todetermine the way forward on this issue.
The discussion related to the expression "[sold] for export" examined the differing
perspectives of the Members of the Technical Comm ittee.  In order to resolve the issue, Members
were asked to supply the Secretariat with details of their administrations' legislation, court rulings and
examples relating to the subject that will be examined at the 16
th Session with the hope that there will
be some convergence of views with regard to the interpretation of this basic text.
The Technical Committee also heard two presentations from Members on the valuation
treatment of importations from Free Trade Zones.  After a lengthy discussion of the FTZ issue, the
Technical Committee agreed that the administration that had submitted the issue had received
sufficient guidance through the discussion and the documentary information provided by other
Members who have FTZ, that it was not necessary to proceed further with the issue.
There was substantial support in the Technical Committee for the preparation of guidelines
for the development of a national valuation database as a risk management tool and, it should be noted
that the Technical Committee will discuss the development work undertaken by the Secretariat during
the intersession at its next session.
Technical Assistance
The Customs Administrations of Chile, France, Japan, the Slovak Republic, Thailand, the
United States and Uruguay reported their technical assistance activities since the 14th Session.
The Secretariat reported on its technical assistance activities in Myanmar, Egypt, Burkina
Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Tunisia, Barbados, Bermuda , the Philippines, and Gabon. Regional missions
hosted by Hungary for the European region and, Argentina for the Americas region were also
reported.  Oral reports on more recent activities were given regarding a joint international valuationseminar in Korea for Asia Pacific countries, and AusAID funded programme for Thailand, a
COMESA funded programme in Zambia and Kenya and, a forthcoming regional event for the Asia
Pacific region.  The Secretariat also participated in valuation related seminars in Ecuador and China.G/VAL/M/32/Corr.1
Page 3
The status of the WCO/USAID valuation technical assistance programme for Kenya, Nigeria,
Lesotho, Tanzania and Senegal was reported to the Technical Committee.  The Technical Committee
was informed that the second stage of the prog ramme was now being conducted.  Between July and
October 2002, five workshops on valuation and/or the training of trainers and a seminar were held in
Lesotho, Nigeria and Senegal.  These activities were conducted by experts from the Customsadministrations of France, Morocco, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The Secretariat informed the Technical Committee about the Symposium on Capacity
Building and the WTO Valuation Agreement that had been held on Thursday 17 and Friday
18 October at WCO Headquarters.  The major topics of the Symposium were "the pivotal role of
Customs valuation in trade facilitation"; "addressing the challenges of implementation"; "the need for
information and how to get it"; and "building a strategy for implementing the Agreement". Over 200
WCO Members, private sector and international organisation representatives attended the Symposium
and we were fortunate to be able to get all of the players involved in capacity building – developing
administrations, developed administrations, international organisations and the private sector together
in one venue to share their concerns and ideas with regard to this issue.
The Symposium led to a real appreciation by developed administrations and the private sector
of the difficulties faced by developing country administrations in implementing the WTO Valuation
Agreement.  A holistic approach to capacity bu ilding was recognised as being needed to assist
developing administrations to overcome these difficulties.  Nevertheless, normal "technical
assistance" was still an urgent necessity for developing country administrations in implementing andworking with the WTO Valuation Agreement.
Finally, there was consensus that the way forwar d to solving the capacity building challenge
lay in cooperation between all of the parties concerned.
For your further information, I would like to take  this opportunity to again inform you that the
WCO and WTO Secretariats continue to work in close consultation with each other in the area of
valuation technical assistance.  In support of this close working relationship and our mutual
recognition that it is necessary for the two organisati ons to work together to assist our Members, the
WTO contributed significantly to the recent WCO/ICC Valuation Symposium and, in turn, the WCO
will be actively participating in the WTO Seminar on Technical Assistance on Customs Valuation.
__________