RESTRICTED  
  
G/VAL/W/ 365 
 
9 October 2 020 
(20-6971) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Customs Valuation    
 
 
DRAFT  
REPORT ( 2020) OF THE COMMITTEE ON CUSTOMS VALUATION  
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS  
1. BACKGROUND  
1.1. The Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 
1994 (the Agreement) entered into force on 1 January 1995. This report covers the period from 
26 October 2019  to 15 October 2020 and addresses the work undertaken by the Committee on 
Custo ms Valuation (the Committee) in respect of the objectives of the Agreement. These are:  to 
provide greater uniformity and certainty in the implementation of the provisions of Article VII of the 
GATT 1994; to establish a fair, unifor m and neutral system for the valuation of goods for customs 
purposes that precludes the use of arbitrary o r fictitious customs values; to ensure that the basis for 
valuation of goods for customs purposes should, to the greatest extent possible, be the tran saction 
value of the goods being valued; and to secure additional benefits for the international trade of 
developing countries.  
1.2. During the period under review , the Committee held one formal meeting : on 19 October 2020 
(G/VAL/M/ 70)1, chaired by  Mr Carlos GUEVARA (Ecuador) who was elected by the Committee on 
31 July 2020. The Committee held one informal meeting on 4 June  2020 to discuss continuation of 
the work of the Committee during the short to medium term period  in light of the COVID -19 
pandem ic. The Committee agreed to postpone the meeting scheduled for 9 July 2020 until the 
Autumn of 2020  and to continue it s work through written procedures  until then . 
1.3. Participation in the Committee is open to all WTO Members. In addition, Governments granted 
observer status by the WTO General Council attended Committee meetings as observers. At the 
April 1997 meeting, the Committee granted observer status to those organ izations which until then  
had observer status on an ad hoc  basis, namely UNCTAD and the WCO, as well as to the ACP and the 
IADB. The Committee took note of the fact that the World Bank and the IMF had observer status by 
virtue of the Agreements between the se organizations and the WTO.  
1.4. The Committee's rules of procedure, which were approved by the Council for Trade in Goods, 
are contained in document G/L/146.   
2. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AGREEMENT  
2.1. During the period under review, no developing country Member maintained delayed 
application of the provisions of th e Agreement in accordance with its  provisions of Article 20.1. At  the 
time of circulation of this report, no Member maintained an extension of the delay period in 
accordance with the provisions o f paragraph 1, Annex III  of the Agreement .   
2.2. To date, 104 Members have notified their national legislation on customs valuation, including 
16 Members which have submitted communications indicating that their legislation notified under 
the Tokyo Round Customs Valuation Agreement remained valid under the WTO Customs Valuation 
Agreement (both figures count the European Union as one ). See document G/VAL/W/232/Rev. 12.  
 
1 To be issued.  G/VAL/W/ 365 
 
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  3. ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE  
3.1. The Committee carried out the following activities during the period under review:  
(a) Review of i nformation on the implementation and administration of the CVA  
− took note of  notification of national legislation from the European Union 
(G/VAL/N/1/EU/1), Tonga (G/VAL/N/1/T ON/1), Vanuatu  (G/VAL/N/1/V UT/1) and 
initiated review s; 
−  during the period under review there were no notifications of the Checklist of Issues ; 
− continued its ongoing review of national legislations notified by the following Members : 
[the Kingdom of Bahrain; Belize; Burundi; China; Dominican Republic; 
the European  Union; The Gambia; Guinea; Honduras; India; Kazakhstan; 
Kyrgyz  Republic; Malawi; Myanmar; Nepal; Niger; Nigeria; the Russian Federation; 
Rwanda; Solomon Islands; Sri Lanka; Togo; Tonga and Vanuatu ]; 
− took note of document G/VAL/W/232/Rev. 12 which was issued by the Secretariat during 
the period under review  and which summariz ed the latest  status of notifications ;  
(b) Information on the application of Decisions of t he Committee on Customs Valuation  
−  took note of the Secretariat's update of summary information on the latest status of 
notifications relate d to the Decision on the "Treatment of Interest Charges in the Customs 
Value of Imported Goods" and the Decision on "Valuation of Carrier Media Bearing 
Software for Data Processing Equipment"  as contained in document G/VAL/W/5/Rev. 32. 
Myanmar submitted a no tification (G/VAL/N/3 /MMR/1);  
 
(c) Technical Assistance  
−  took note of the technical assistance carried out by the WTO  and the  information compiled 
by the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation concerning technical assistance 
activities carried out by the WCO  and its Members , as contained in document  
G/VAL/8/Add. 40; 
 
(d) Specific Trade concerns  
−  at the meeting of 19 October  2020, took note of the statement [s] made on "Pakistan's 
determination of customs value s of paper ", raised by Thailand ; 
 
(e) Preshipment Inspection Agreement  
−  took note of the information on the notifications which had been received on preshipment 
inspection (G/PSI/N/1/Rev.4 ; G/PSI/N/1/Rev.4/Add.1 ; G/PSI/N/1/Rev.4/Add. 2; 
G/PSI/N/1/Rev.4/Add. 3; and G/PSI/N/1/Rev.4/Add. 4). New notifications were submitted 
by China (G/VAL/N/4/Add.1), Egypt (G/VAL /N/4/Add.4), Seychelles (G/VAL/N/4/Add.3) 
and Tonga (G/VAL/N/4/Add.2) ; 
−  took note, at the meeting of 19 October  2020, of statement [s] made under the agenda 
item of questions and responses by the United States and Indonesia, respectively;  
−  took note, at the meeting of 19 October  of the latest report by the International Federation 
of Inspection Agencies (IFIA) concerning countries that use preshipment inspection 
services which was circulated in document  G/VAL/W/63/Rev.2 5. IFIA informed the 
Committee of its name change to TIC Council (testing, inspection and certification (TIC) 
industry Council) ;  
−  at the meeting of 19 October 2020 , launched  the fifth triennial review of the PSI 
Agreement  (G/VAL/W/363) ; 
 G/VAL/W/3 65 
 
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  (f) Reports by The Technical Committee on Customs Valuation  
−  took note of the reports by the World Customs Organization on the work of the Technical 
Committee on Customs Valuation, including its 49th and 50th session s 
(4 to November  2019 and 12 to 14 October 2020 ), as well as related activities of the 
WCO Secretariat . The TCCV  commemorated its 50th session  at its October 2020  meeting ;    
(g) Annual Review and Annual R eport to the Council for Trade i n Goods  
−  At the meeting of 19 October,  the Committee : 
- [adopted  the Annual Review of the Implementati on and Operation of the Customs  
Valuation Agreement (G/VAL/ xx), and requested the Secretariat to update it to 
take account of the 19 October  meeting; ] and 
- [adopted the Annual  Report to the Council for Trade in Goods (G/ L/xxxx ) and 
requested the Secretariat to update it to take account of the 19 October  meeting .]  
 
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