G/L/1284  
 
27 November 2018  
(18-7472) Page: 1/3 
   
 
REPORT (201 8) OF THE COMMITTEE O N CUSTOMS VALUATION  
TO THE COUNCIL FOR T RADE IN GOODS  
1. BACKGROUND  
1.1. The Agreement on Implementation of Article  VII of the General  Agreement on Tariffs and 
Trade  1994 (the Agr eement) entered into force on 1  January  1995. This report covers the period from 
26 October  2017 to 19  November  2018. It addresses the work undertaken by the Committee on 
Customs Valuation (the Committee) in respect of the objectives of the Agreement. The  objectives are: 
to provide greater unifo rmity and certainty in the implementation of the provis ions of Article  VII of the 
GATT  1994; to establish a fair, uniform and neutral system for the valuation of goods for customs 
purposes that precludes the use of arbitrary o r fictitious customs values; t o ensure that the basis for 
valuation of goods for customs purposes should, to the greatest extent possible, be the transaction 
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 two formal meetings : on 23 April 2018 
(G/VAL/M/ 66) chaired by Ms Luciana NADER (Uruguay)  and on 19 November  2018 (G/VAL/M/67)1, 
chaired by Mr Yuichiro OKUMURA (Japan) . Mr Okumura had been elected as Chairperson by the 
Committee at the meeti ng of 23  April 2018. The Committee  also held two  informal meetings on 
10 July and 27  September  2018. 
1.3. Participation in the Committee is open to all WTO  Members. In addition, Governments gra nted 
observer statu s 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 tho 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 TH E AGREEMENT  
2.1. During the period under review, no developing country Member maintained delayed 
applicatio n 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 w ith the provisions of paragraph  1, Annex  III of the Agre ement . 
2.2. To date, 9 9 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 Agreeme nt remained va lid under the WTO  Customs Valuation 
Agreement (both figures count the European Union as one ). In addition, 68  Members have provided 
responses to the checklist of issues. There are 3 6 Members which have not yet made either  of these 
two notifications . The st atus of notifications was issued in document s G/VAL/W/232/Rev.8 and 
G/VAL/W/232/Rev. 9. 
                                                
1 To be issued.  G/L/1284  
 
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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 implementatio n and administration of the CVA  
- continued its review of 14 national legislations notified by the following Members : the 
Kingdom of Bahrain; Belize; China; Guinea;  Honduras; Kazakhstan; Malawi; Nepal; 
Nigeria;  the Russian  Federation; Rwanda; Solomon Islands;  Sri Lanka and The  Gambia. 
At the meeting of 19  November, the Committee agreed to revert to the examinations 
at the next meeting ; 
 
- took note of document s G/VAL/W/232/ Rev.8 and G /VAL/W/232/Rev. 9 which were 
issued by the Secretariat during the period under review  and which summariz ed the 
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 
documents  G/VAL/W/5/Rev.28  and G/VAL/W/5/Rev.29 . During the period under review , 
Malaysia submitted two  new notifications (G/VAL/N/3/MYS/1) and (G/VAL/N/3/MYS/2) ; 
 
- took note of the statements made under the agenda item "Proposal by Uruguay 
(G/VAL/W/241/Rev.1) on the Decision on the Valuation of Carrier Media Bearing 
Software for Data Processing Equipment". Other documents related to this item include 
a proposal by Sw itzerland (G/VAL/W/254), a report with statistics on imports of th ose 
products  (G/VAL/ W/249 ), which was prepared by the Secretariat at the Committee's 
request, and Uruguay's  responses to questions raised by one delegation 
(G/VAL/ W/264 ); 
 
(c) Technical Assistan ce 
- had discussions on how best to respond to a request for technical assista nce raised at 
the meeting of 23  April by some LDCs that were experiencing implementation 
challenges. As  a result, at the meeting of 19  November, the Committee agreed to hold 
an experience -sharing workshop to take place on 14  February  2019;  
- took note of the technical assistance carried out by the WTO . It also took note of the 
information compiled by the Technical Committee  on Customs Valuation concerning 
technical assistance act ivities carried out by the WCO  and its Members . This information 
is contained in documents  G/VAL/8/Add. 36 and G/VAL/8/ Add.3 7; 
 
(d) Specific Trade C oncerns  
- took note of the statements made on the following  agenda items:  
 
(i) Armenia's reference price system in connection with the valuation of goods – 
raised by the United States ; 
(ii) Pakistan's determination of customs value s of paper  – raised by Thailand ; 
(iii) Oman's customs valuation of cigarettes and introduction of the selective tax, 
raised by Switzerlan d; 
(iv) Tajikistan – issues related to customs valuation , raised by Ukraine.  
 
The concerns raised under (i), (ii) and (iii) were discussed at the meeting of 23  April 
and 19  November . Item  (iv) was raised for the first time at the meeting of 
19 November ; 
 G/L/1284  
 
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  (e) Preshipment Inspection Agreement  
- took note of a report consolidating the status of all t he notifications which had been 
received on preshipment inspection ( document  G/PSI/N/1/Rev.3/Add.1 ). During the 
period under review , a new notification  was submitted by Afghanistan ; 
 
- took note, at the  meetings of 23  April and 19  November, of statements made under the 
agenda item "Egypt's status of Notification of PSI" raised by the United States and which 
was referred to in document  G/VAL/W/299 ; 
 
- took note, at the meetings of 23  April and 19  November, of statements made under the 
agenda item of questions and responses by the United Stat es and Indonesia, 
respectively;  
 
- took note, at the meetings of 23  April and 19  November, of the latest reports by the 
Internationa l Federation of Inspection Agencies (IFIA) concerning countries that use 
preshipment inspection services which were circulated in 
documents  G/VAL/W/63/Rev.22 and G/VAL/W/63/Rev.23 ; 
 
(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 46th session (8  to 12 May 2018) and 
47th session (23 to 26  October  2018), as well as related act ivities of the 
WCO Secretariat;  
 
(g) Annual Review and Annual R eport to the Council for Trade i n Goods  
- At the meeting of 19 November , the Committee : 
- adopted  the Annual Review of the Implementati on and Operation of the Customs  
Valuation Agreement (G/VAL/W/ 311)2, and requested the Secretariat to update 
it to take account of the 19 November  meeting;  and 
 
- adopted the Annual Report to the Council for Trade in Goods (G/VAL/W/ 312), and 
requested the Secretariat to update it to take account of the 19 November  
meeting . Given that the meeting of the Cou ncil for Trade in Goods took place on 
12 November, the Annual Report was submitted directly to the General Council.  
 
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2 To be issued as document  G/VAL /76.