G/L/1372  
 
11 November  2020 
(20-8077) Page: 1/3 
   
 
 
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 19 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 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 pandemic.  The Committee agreed to postpone the meeting scheduled for 
9 July 2020 until the Autumn of 2020 and to continue its work through written proc edures until then. 
The Committee thus held one formal meeting on 19 October 2020 (G/VAL/M/ 70)1, chaired by  
Mr Carlos GUEVARA (Ecuador) who was elected on 27  July 2020. 
1.3. Participation in the Committee is open to all WTO Members. In addition, Government s 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 organizations 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 these organizations and the WTO.  
1.4. The Committee's rules o f 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  the 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 of 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 C ustoms Valuation 
Agreement (both figures count the European Union as one ). In addition, 72 Members have provided 
responses to the Checklist of Issues regarding their legislation. See document G/VAL/W/232/Rev. 12.  
 
1 To be issued.  G/L/1372  
 
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  3. ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE  
3.1. The Committee carried out the following activities at its meeting of 19 October : 
(a) Review of i nformation on the implementation and administration of the CVA  
− took note of  notification s of national customs legislation submitted by Tonga 
(G/VAL/N/1/T ON/1) and Vanuatu  (G/VAL/N/1/V UT/1) and initiated review s; 
− took note of amendments to customs legislation submitted by  the European Union 
(G/VAL/N/1/EU/1) and the Solomon Islands (G/VAL/N/1/SLB/Add.1);  
−  took note of a  notification of the Checklist of Issues  from the Dominican Republic 
(G/VAL/N/2/DOM/1) ;  
− concluded the review of the national customs legislation s notified by the Kingdom of 
Bahrain; China , and Myanmar ; 
− continued its ongoing review of national customs legislations notified by the following 
Members : Belize; Burundi; Dominican Republic; The Gambia; Guinea; Honduras; India; 
Kazakhstan; Kyrgyz  Republic; Malawi; Nepal; Niger; Nigeria; Russian Federation; 
Rwanda; Solomon Islands; Sr i Lanka  and Togo;  
− 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; 
− took note of the notification submitted by  Myanmar (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  Secretariat , as contained in document  G/VAL/8/Add. 40; 
 
(d) Specific Trade Concerns  
− took note of the statements 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 (reflected in documents in the G/PSI/N/1/Rev.4  series ), and new notifications  
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 of statements made under the agenda item of questions and responses 
regarding notifications submitted by Indonesia, Egypt, China and Saint Lucia ;  
−  agreed to launch  the fifth triennial review of the PSI Agreement  (background information 
contained in G/VAL/W/363) and agreed to a date of 30 March 2021 for Members to 
provide any statements in the context of this review ; 
− took note of the latest report by the Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC)  Council 
(formerly the International Federation of Inspection Agencies  (G/VAL/W/363, Annex I))  
concerning countries that use preshipment inspection services which was circulated in 
document  G/VAL/W/63/Rev.2 5;  
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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  (TCCV) , including its 49th and 50th/51st session s 
(4 to 8 November  2019 and 12 to 14 October 2020 , respectively ), as well as related 
activities of the WCO  Secretariat , including its commemoration of  its 50th session  at its 
October 2020  meeting ;    
(g) Annual Review and Annual R eport to the Council for Trade i n Goods  
−  adopted  the Annual Review of the Implementation and Operation of the Customs 
Valuation Agreement and requested the Secretariat to update it to take account of the 
19 October meeting  (G/VAL/77) ; 
− adopted the Annual Report to the Council for Trade in Goods and requested the 
Secretariat to update it to take account of the 19 October meeting.  
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