RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/VAL/M/15
12 July 2000
(00-2859)
Committee on Customs Valuation   
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF 14 JUNE AND 4 JULY 2000
Chairman: Mr. Remo Moretta (Australia)
The agenda proposed for the meeting, circulated in WTO/AIR/1326, was adopted as follows:
1. Information on Implementation and Administration of the Agreement .........................1
(a) Notifications made by de veloping country Members.............................................................1
(i) Extension of  delay period................................................................................................... .....1
Bahrain
Côte d'Ivoire
Cuba
Senegal
EgyptEl Salvador
Guatemala
Maldives
(ii) Reservation on minimum values .............................................................................................2
Morroco
2. Technical Assistance ......................................................................................................... ....2
(b) Trade-related technical assistance :  Project for cust oms valuation.........................................2
(i) Communication from the European Communities..................................................................2
3. Other Business............................................................................................................... ........6
(c) Date for the next meeting................................................................................................... .....6
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1. Information on Implementation and Administration of the Agreement
(a) Notifications made by developing country Members
(i) Extension of delay period
1.1 The Chairman drew Members' attention to the draft decision contained in
G/VAL/W/61/Add.1 concerning the request for an extension of the transition period by El Salvador.
He added that a Corr.1 also existed for the Spanish version of the document to correct an error in the
translation of the draft decision from English into Spanish.  He proposed that the Committee adopt
this draft decision.
1.2 The Committee so agreed.G/VAL/M/15
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1.3 The representative of Cuba informed the Committee that his delegation's request for an
extension of the transition period would be withdr awn as his Government had taken the necessary
steps to apply the Agreement.  His Government w ould be making the required notifications in this
regard as soon as possible.
1.4 The Chairman noted that there were presentl y six extension requests pending - Bahrain, Côte
d'Ivoire, Egypt, Guatemala, Maldives and Senegal.  He understood that consultations among
interested Members were still on-going concerning these requests and it was difficult to determine
when the Committee would have to meet again to consider relevant draft decisions.  He proposed,
therefore, that the Members which had made these requests keep the Secretariat up-dated on the
progress of their requests and when and if a draft decision had been formulated which they would like
to put before the Committee.  He would attempt to call a meeting of the Committee as soon aspossible thereafter to consider the drafts.  He added that this did not prejudice any new requests which
would be included in this group of six.
1.5 The Committee so agreed.
(ii) Reservation on minimum values
1.6 The Chairman noted that the one request pe nding under paragraph 2 of Annex III concerned
Morocco which was contained in document G/VAL/W/68.
1.7 The representative of Morocco informed the Committee that five delegations had requested
bilateral consultations concerning his delegation's request - the European Union, Switzerland, Japan,
Canada, and the United States.  In these consultations, many technical issues had been raised and his
delegation would attempt to supply the responses to questions posed when their expert arrived from
the capital in the following week.  He requested that these five Members, as well as any other
interested Members, contact him in order to set up a time for bilateral consultations.  His delegationhoped to reach an agreement on this matter by the end of next week and, therefore, suggested that this
meeting be suspended and resumed as soon as an agreement was reached.
1.8 As consultations were still on-going and Morocco's existing reservation would expire on
4 July 2000, the Chairman urged concerned Members to work expeditiously on this request and
suggested that the Committee suspend this meeting so that he could call a meeting at short noticebefore the expiration date.
1.9 The Committee so agreed.
1.10 The representative of El Salvador thanked Members for cooperating with her delegation on
the consideration of its extension request.  Her delegation wished to stress that if it considered
necessary to apply minimum values for used products it would do so under the terms of the
Agreement.
2. Technical Assistance
(b) Trade-related technical assistance:  Project for customs valuation
(i) Communication from the European Communities
2.1 The representative of the European Communities presented its proposal which is reproduced
in Annex I, and which was subsequently circulated in WTO document G/VAL/W/71.G/VAL/M/15
Page 3
2.2 The representative of Pakistan requested that the EC circulate its statement in written form.
In principle, his delegation would lend its support to the EC proposal on technical assistance in the
context of the work that had been done in the Committee.  His delegation appreciated this work and
had benefitted from it.  In fact, the technical assistance provided by the WTO had enabled his
Government to revise its legislation and come into conformity with the Agreement.
2.3 The representative of Switzerland stated that technical assistance was crucial to proper
implementation of the Agreements, including the Customs Valuation Agreement.  Therefore, her
delegation welcomed all initiatives aimed at making technical assistance more effective and the EC
proposal was a step in this direction.  The con cept of the Integrated Framework (IF), aimed at
enhanced coordination between donors and recipients on one hand, and among donors themselves on
the other hand, represented a productive approach not only towards least-developed countries, but alsotowards other developing countries.  The better coordination entailed in the IF suited recipients as
well as donors.  It led to more efficient use of funds and consequently convinced donors of the
effectiveness of their contributions.  Her delegation therefore considered that technical assistance in
the area of customs valuation should continue according to the principles of the IF.  It should also be
undertaken to improve the Framework whenever necessary and this was the gist of the EC proposal.As a Member which had financed technical assistance to many countries in the area of customs
valuation, her Government suggested that future projects take into consideration the experience
gained by these previous efforts.
2.4 The representative of India also requested the EC statement in written form and wished to
revert to the matter at a later date.2.5 The representative of Egypt considered that the EC proposal reflected understanding of the
kinds of implementation problems that developing countries, either those granted extensions or
applying the Agreement, were encountering.  She would report the proposal to her capital for theirviews, after which she hoped to work closely with the EC to determine how, in practice, a mechanism
could be put in place to carry out the ambitious plan put forward.
2.6 The representative of the United States shared the strong interest in technical assistance and
capacity-building and underscored the importance of reinvigorating the important work of the
Committee in this regard.  His delegation looked forward to participating in any informal
consultations on this matter and other work that would take place.
2.7 The representative of Canada noted that technical assistance was an integral part of the
implementation process for this Agreement and supported the call to reinvigorate the work of the
Committee in this area, including identifying potential gaps such as post-implementation assistance.
Considerable progress had been made, but the Committee ought not be complacent.
2.8 The representative of Australia supported, in principle, the ideas presented in the EC proposal
and was interested in any initiative that would enhance the delivery of technical assistance.  Her
delegation looked forward to participating in fu ture informal consultations on the matter and
underlined the importance of developing countries participating in these consultations.  The latterwould be critical to identifying the areas where needs were not being met and in developing ideas on
how to enhance technical assistance programmes.
2.9 The representative of Guatemala considered it important that developed countries bear in
mind the difficulties faced by developing countries in implementing the Agreement.  He also
requested that the proposal be circulated in written form so that it could be sent to capitals and could
be examined more thoroughly.  His delegation was open and willing to enter into detailed discussion
on this matter through informal consultations.G/VAL/M/15
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2.10 The representative of New Zealand also requested a copy of the statement in written form.
She added that, initially, her delegation was supportive of the proposal to reinvigorate the
Committee's work on technical assistance and shared the objectives identified in the proposal such as
strengthening  coherence and cooperation in the provis ion of technical assistance.  This applied to all
WTO Agreements.  She considered that a good base had been set up during the past year or so and awealth of information was now available on the type of assistance being provided by other
international organizations as well as bilaterally.  She urged that the consultations on this matter build
on the work already undertaken to ensure that any new work would add value to these efforts.
2.11 The representative of Jamaica welcomed the initiative to bring about a more focused and
coordinated delivery of technical assistance, not only in the field of customs valuation, as well as to
achieve a wider reach of benefits.  Her delegation looked forward to actively participating in anyfuture discussions on this matter.
2.12 The representative of Mexico stressed that the work already accomplished in the Committee
had to be taken into account in addressing this matter.  This work was based on the idea of coherence
and had born fruit for a number of developing countries.  Thus, it was necessary to take stock of thiswork to determine at what stage of this work was the Committee.  The ideas in the text were excellent
because they attempted to better pinpoint the needs for assistance.  However, these ideas should
follow an appropriate sequence, i.e. first a st ocktaking of what had been done followed by an
examination of the EC proposal.  The idea that an IF-type of approach could work for customs
valuation seemed excellent, but this would require more analysis because there had not been muchachieved in concrete terms under the IF programme.
2.13 The representative of Norway stated that technical assistance and capacity-building were top
priorities for his Government and he welcomed the initiative from the EC.  The focus on customs
valuation was a good one because in this area the obligations on Members were quite resourceintensive.  His delegation looked forward to participating in the informal consultations on this matter.
2.14 The representative of Japan also welcomed the EC proposal as his delegation had a strong
interest in technical assistance.  He welcomed the idea of holding informal consultations as well as a
stocktaking of work already done on the matter.
2.15  The representative of Hungary considered the EC proposal as a first concrete implementation
of the understanding reached in the confidence-building exercise and his delegation hoped that other
initiatives would follow in other areas as well.  He found many interesting elements in the proposal,
particularly that of coordination both within the WTO and outside with other organizations.  It was
also important to review the demands of countries requesting technical assistance.  For his delegation,
the most important element was to attempt to prevent future problems, which had been witnessed inthis Committee, and which compelled the need to address "post-implementation" problems.
2.16 The representative of the Philippines welcomed the EC statement as her Government attached
a great deal of importance to technical assistance.  Her Government had been able to implement its
obligations under this Agreement because of the technical assistance received from bilateral andmultilateral sources and from international organizations.  She considered that there was merit in the
idea of covering the post-implementation problems and, in order for such assistance to be effective, it
would have to be demand-driven.  In this regard, it might be useful for those Members which were
recently implementing the Agreement to submit nati onal experience papers identifying the problems
encountered in implementing the Agreement so that the focus of the technical assistance could be onthose areas.  She added that if national experience papers were forthcoming and the type of assistance
identified, she would hope that assistance would quickly follow soon after.  In the past her
Government had made a submission indicating its needs which, unfortunately, was not followed up.G/VAL/M/15
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2.17 The representative of Chile also welcomed the EC proposal which was in line with the
movement in the WTO towards addressing implementation issues.  He agreed that it was necessary to
assess previous activities, but this should not be an obstacle to moving forward with this new stage of
activity.  He agreed that it was important to ensure coherence within the WTO Secretariat on technical
assistance work, not only with the Technical Cooperation Division, but also with the Trade PolicyReview Division.  Coherence with  other organizations was also important.  He considered the
Philippine suggestion to submit national experience papers useful.
2.18 The representative of Senegal welcomed the initiative by the EC which was particularly
important for those Members which had not yet been able to implement the Agreement.  He thought
that one of the weak points in technical assistance was the lack of proper coordination.  More
consideration to technical assistance overall in the WTO was necessary.  He also requested circulationof the statement in written form and would wish to  participate in any informal consultations on this
matter.
2.19 The representative of Côte d'Ivoire supported the statements made in favour of the technical
assistance proposal by the EC.  She added that an assessment of past work would be useful as would
inclusion of transparency and coherence in this work.  Her delegation would also wish to participate
in any informal consultations on this matter.
2.20 The representative of Brazil joined other Members in supporting the EC initiative and would
like to also take part in informal consultations on this matter.2.21 The representative of Madagascar appreciated the initiative by the EC because technical
assistance was vital for certain countries, in particular, the least-developed countries.  Assistance was
necessary not only for implementation, but for the phase of activity after initial implementation.
Assistance could be improved within the framework of enhanced coordination and coherence as wellas a stocktaking exercise of past work.  He considered that the suggestion by the Philippines regarding
national experience papers could be useful as the needs expressed by developing countries had not
been fully met nor sometimes taken into account.  His Government had benefitted from a technical
cooperation programme from the WTO in this area which had enabled it to evolve its domestic
legislation.  His Government hoped to apply this legislation in the near future but it still needed
technical assistance in the areas of training, information, teaching tools and equipment, and
informatics.  He thanked the EU for providing technical assistance on computerization in the customsvaluation area and had also received assistance from the WCO.  He added that the ideas put forward
in this context should be merged with the discus sions in the General Council on technical assistance
and concluded that budgetary resources would need to be strengthened for technical assistance.
2.22 The Chairman took note of the statements made.  He invited the EC delegation to circulate its
statement in written form and noted that there was broad recognition that a great deal of valuable
work had already been done in this area.  Along with the EC statement to be circulated, he proposed
that the Secretariat prepare a stocktaking paper as a basis for the consultations that he would hold with
Members on how to build on the principles outlined by the EC in taking this matter forward.
2.23 The Committee so agreed.
2.24 The representative of the European Communities stated that his delegation was impressed by
the business-like and friendly reception received by its proposal.  His delegation would provide a
statement in written form and attempt to take on board some of the ideas presented at this meeting.He agreed that taking stock of work already done was important as was the idea of experience papers.G/VAL/M/15
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3. Other Business
(c) Date for the next meeting
3.1 The Chairman proposed suspending the meeting until further notice and he would advise
Members of the date of the resumption of the meeting as soon as possible.
3.2 The Committee so agreed.
Resumption of the meeting on 4 July 2000
The agenda proposed for this resumption was the first item of the agenda contained in
WTO/AIR/1326.
1. Information on Implementation and Administration of the Agreement
(a) Notifications made by developing country Members
- Reservation on minimum values
Morocco
1.1 The Chairman stated his understanding that, from the consultations among Members, there
was agreement in principle to grant Morocco a further one-year extension of its reservation on
minimum values in accordance with paragraph 2 of Annex III and the Decision on Reservations
contained in G/VAL/5.  He recalled that on 2 July 1998, the Committee adopted the Decision
contained in G/VAL/M/8 granting Morocco a two-year reservation on minimum values for the
products listed in document G/VAL/W/27.  He understood that the one-year extension would be for
the same list of products.  As agreement among Members was reached only yesterday, the documentcontaining the draft decision for this extension of the reservation was still under preparation.  Given
that the Committee was working under the deadline imposed by the Decision on Reservations in
G/VAL/5 which expired today, he proposed that the Committee agree that the Secretariat would
circulate in the next couple of days the document containing the draft decision and unless any
Member raised an objection to this draft decision to  either himself or to the Secretariat within five
days from the date of circulation of the document, th at the decision be adopted as of today's date.  He
added that this way of proceeding was similar to the way the Committee handled the Colombianrequest.
1.2 The Committee so agreed.
1.3 Before adjourning the meeting, the Chairman stated that he would be convening a formal
meeting of the Committee before the summer recess to take up extension requests and the EC
proposal on technical assistance (G/VAL/W/71).
1.4 The meeting was adjourned.G/VAL/M/15
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ANNEX I
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
CUSTOMS VALUATION MODEL WORK PROGRAMME
Communication from the European Communities
The European Communities would like to take this opportunity to put more focus on the very
valuable work this Committee has done on tech nical assistance in implementing the Customs
Valuation Agreement. This explains my presence here, as I am responsible for the technical assistance
activities delivered by WTO.
One thing which clearly came out of the process undertaken in WTO after the Seattle failure
is the need to improve technical assistance. This is reflected not only in the statements made in theGeneral Council made on 8 May, but also in various contributions which the Quad, individual
delegations including the EC (WT/COMTD/W/69) have put forward. In short, we have to do more
and better on technical assistance in WTO.
This Committee has played an eminent role in sketching out how we can improve on WTO
technical assistance. Extremely useful work has been done in this Committee to develop a bottom-upapproach on technical assistance (documents as the inventory G/VAL/W/25 etc.). By this I mean that
we have looked at the individual needs of countr ies which had a problem to meet a certain deadline.
We have identified the necessary steps which would enable them to implement the various provisions
of the Customs Valuation Agreement. We have looked for potential donors which can carry out
precisely defined measures. We have tried to coordinate the various actors which deliver technical
assistance on the ground. I think it is fair to say that no other WTO Committee has taken such an
innovative approach in getting things done. I think it is also fair to say that the work done here has
largely gone unnoticed, and may not have got the credit it deserves.
From the work done so far in this Committee, but also from the activities which have taken
place elsewhere (APEC, bilateral programmes of individual WTO Members,  UNCTAD, World Bank,
WCO) we think it is useful to deduct a number of core principles, and to possibly extend the work
done so far in particular the follow-up once we have agreed on a specific future work:
- You all know these core principles. They are full participation by the recipients for demand
driven assistance (needs assessment, regard ing for example national legislation and its
conformity to the agreement, customs procedure) ;
- Establishment of priorities and identification of specific problem areas (where do we need
training materials, where do we have to send for experts, where do we have to providecourses/seminars etc.) ;
- The need to improve coherence between the relevant donors .
(- N.B. There might be other principles to be identified)
We intend to add to these principles the need for continuation of the work in the post-
implementation period. At some stage, we have to see whether the measures taken have had thedesired effect or whether and what additional measures are necessary.G/VAL/M/15
Page 8
Those of you who have experience with the Integrated Framework may recognise the
principles just eluded to as they form the core of the Integrated Framework. While in that context
applying these principles had not been without di fficulty, the Community believes that using them to
implement a single agreement should be easier. We would also like to recall that in our various
communications on technical assistance and capacity building in WTO, we have underlined ourintention to apply the principles of the Integrated Framework to other areas in WTO activities (N.B.
without enlarging the Integrated Framework as such, which we wish to see limited to least developed
countries also in the future). It is also worth noting that APEC has adopted a similar approach to
technical assistance last week in Darwin.
We believe that we should agree in this Committee that we can reinforce the work done by
defining better the principles we just mentioned, and trying to refocus the work by having a clear
framework of parameters within which we work.
The Community believes that refocusing the work of the Committee, and in particular trying
to include the post-implementation dimension into its work can respond to the good intentions we all
have in making technical assistance more effective. In the longer term, we have the hope that we can
draw lessons from the work undertaken here in order to in general improve WTO technical assistance.
Procedurally, we would ask the Chairman of this Committee, if delegations so agree, to start
informal consultations in order to see what elements could be identified in order to undertake
systematic future meaningful work in this Comm ittee. We also believe that the WTO Secretariat at
some stage can help us, for example in establishing a clear picture of who is doing what in the field of
customs valuation at this moment. Involving the WTO Secretariat also means fully implicating the
WTO division responsible for technical cooperation along the WTO services servicing thisCommittee.
Returning to my starting point: We would like to discuss with you a renewed approach to
technical assistance in WTO, using the context of customs valuation. Given the importance of
technical assistance for WTO in general, we have the intention to bring our renewed efforts in this
Committee, also to the attention of the other relevant WTO bodies, for example the Committee on
Trade & Development which is responsible for technical assistance delivered in WTO in general.
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