G/MA/288  
 
28 October 2013  
(13-5955)  Page: 1/4  
Committee on Market Access    
 
 NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR THE INTEGRATED DATA BASE (IDB) 
INFORMATION NOTE BY THE SECRETARIAT1 
 
Introduction 
This document was prepared on the initiative of the Secretariat for the consideration of the 
Committee on Market Access.  It summarizes the va rious earlier documents on the IDB notification 
requirements with a view to provide an easy reference which should facilitate the work of 
delegations in following up on their notificati on requirements.  The document includes also 
references to IDB related notification requirements established in the context of the PTA and RTA transparency mechanisms.   
 
Legal Background 
The General Council adopted on 16 July 1997 a deci sion on the Supply of Information to the 
Integrated Data Base (WT/L/225) stipulating that WTO Members shall supply to the Secretariat, on 
an annual basis, a comprehensive set of tariff duties and imports statistics at the level of customs tariffs lines.  The decision also states that the Secretariat, upon request, provides technical 
assistance to Members in relation to the submission of the data required for the Integrated Data 
Base.  The transparency mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements (RTA TM) adopted by the General 
Council on 14 December 2006 requires WTO member s that are RTA parties to submit trade and 
tariff information related to their respective regional trade arrangements.
2 
 
The transparency mechanism for Preferential Trade Arrangements (PTA TM) adopted by the 
General Council on 14 December 2010 requires WTO members to submit annually preferential duties information and imports of the beneficiary partners by duty regime.
3  
 
If information submitted under the IDB notification requirement matches the information requirements under the RTA and/or PTA TM, members can refer to these notifications instead of notifying the information again.  
 
Coverage 
WTO Members shall supply to the Secretariat, on an annual basis, a comprehensive set of tariff 
duties and imports statistics at the level of the national customs tariff nomenclature.
4   
 Tariff duties should include the MFN applied duties, the non-reciprocal preferential duty rates and the 
regional trade agreements customs duties. The submission of non-reciprocal preferential duties, a 
voluntary notification requirement under the IDB decision has been made obligatory in the PTA TM.  The RTA TM does not specifically mention the annual notification of preferential duties but many 
                                               
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and without prejudice to 
the positions of Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO.  The Committee on Market Access took note of this docu ment on 7 October 2013. 
2 See document WT/L/671 of 18 December 2006. 
3 See document WT/L/806 of 16 December 2010. 
4 See the Annex for examples on  IDB notification formats. G/MA/288 
 
- 2 - 
 
  members provide them already together with their IDB submissions and others are encouraged to 
follow that practice as well, in order to increase transparency on current applied customs duties.  Import statistics should be provided at the tariff line level by country of origin, in terms of value and 
volume.  Members providing preferential duties should under the PTA TM include the duty regime of 
the beneficiary partners for each trade flow at the tariff line level.  The submission of similar information for trade flows covered by RTAs is currently not obligatory but members are 
encouraged to consider supplying such information as well.    
 Deadlines 
The deadlines for the IDB submission of tariffs are 30 March for the tariff of the current year and 
30 September for imports of the previous year.
5  The respective deadlines under the PTA TM for 
the submission of preferential du ties are 30 June and the deadlines for the submission of imports 
by duty regime(s), if applicable, are 31 October.6  I t  i s  r e c o m m e n d e d  t o  s u p p l y  t h e  r e q u i r e d  
information for MFN tariffs and preferential tariffs in one submission.  For members that do not 
f o l l o w  a  c a l e n d a r  y e a r  t h e  d e a d l i n e s  w i l l  b e  a d j u s t e d  t o  t a k e  i n t o  a c c o u n t  t h e  d a t e s  w h e n  t h e  national tariff comes into force. 
 
IDB framework 
The framework to enhance the IDB notifications compliance was adopted by the Committee on 
Market Access on 13 July 2009
7.  Its goal is to overcome gaps in members' notifications and delays 
in providing the information to users.  To achieve it the Secretariat has been given more flexibility 
to collect data from official national, regional or international sources. The potential sources identified by the Secretariat and the data retr ieved, are subject to approval by the member 
concerned, following the procedures laid down in the IDB framework document. Members will have 
a period of 60 days to raise any objection regarding the source proposed or the data retrieved.  After this period and if no objection is raised, the Secretariat will include the proposed data as an 
IDB notification.  Members will retain the right to transmit, at any time, modifications to their files.  
Furthermore, they will retain the right to object to any data which they might consider not reflecting accurately their situation, as well as to withdraw, revise or replace any data already 
incorporated into the IDB. 
   
Dissemination 
The dissemination policy for the Integrated Data Base was adopted by the Committee on Market 
Access on 13 July 2009.
8  According to the dissemination policy the information contained in the 
IDB is available freely to the public at the tariff line level for tariffs and at the HS 6-digit level for import statistics.  The import information at the tariff line level is confidential and its distribution is 
restricted to authorized users, except when a wr itten permission from the Members is obtained by 
the WTO Secretariat which would allow unrestricted dissemination of this information.
9 
The dissemination policy document defines the "res tricted" and "unrestricted" data, the authorised 
users and outlines the rules for the publication of data and the channels of dissemination.  
The dissemination of information collected in the context of the RTA and PTA TMs is following the 
same principles.10   
                                               
5 See document G/MA/IDB/1/Rev.1/Add.1. 
6 Paragraph of 18 of the PTA decision stipulates th at "to the extent a developing country Member has 
technical constraints fulfilling the notification requirem ents of paragraph 16, the Member will not be expected 
to do so until 31 July 2013.  The Member may submit an outline of the steps to be taken to fulfil these notification requirements to the CTD by 31 July 2012". 
7 See document G/MA/239 of 4 September 2009. 
8 See document G/MA/238 of 4 September 2009. 
9 In that connection, Members are encourag ed to provide such written permission. 
10 See documents WT/L/671 and WT/L/806. G/MA/288 
 
- 3 - 
 
  ANNEX – FORMATS OF IDB NOTIFICATIONS1 
1. Example of tariff file 
Tariff line 
code Product Description MFN Applied  
duty rate Preference 1 Preference 2 … GSP LDC 
….        
0301.91.00 Live trout 35% 10% 5%  - 0% 
….        
0210.11.39 Dried or smoked 
shoulders and cuts thereof 119 $/100 KG/net  
0%  
2%   
0%  
0% 
….        
2905.45.00 Glycerol 0.005$/KG - 0%  0% 0% 
….        
8470.50.00 Cash registers 0% - -  - - 
….        
 References for the tariff file: Year, Version of the HS nomenclature. Duties provided (MFN applied, Preference 1, Preference 2, GSP and LDC schemes).  The current bound duties and the binding situ ation for each tariff line should be provided
2, if available. 
Beneficiary countries for Preferences (Preference 1: Countries X, Y, Preference 2:  Countries A, B, C, GSP Beneficiaries: Countries A, B, C, D, …. LDC Beneficiaries: All LDC Countries). Duty currency unit (national currency) and Duty assessment (net weight). 
 
2. Example of import statistics 
Tariff line code Partner Value Quantity  Quantity unit  
0210.11.39 AUS 100 200 KG 
0210.11.39 BRA 200 400 KG 
0210.11.39 CHN 300 600 KG 
0210.11.39 MLI 50 100 KG 
…     
2905.45.00 AUS 100 200 TON 
2905.45.00 BRA 200 400 TON 
2905.45.00 LKA 50 100 TON 
2905.45.00 CHN 10 20 TON 
 
Example of import statistics by duty regime 
Tariff line code Partner Duty Regime Value Quantity  Quantity unit  
0210.11.39 AUS MFN 20 30 KG 
0210.11.39 AUS Preference 1 80 170 KG 
0210.11.39 BRA MFN 200 400 KG 
0210.11.39 CHN MFN 300 600 KG 
0210.11.39 MLI LDC 50 100 KG 
…      
2905.45.00 AUS Preference 1 100 200 TON 
2905.45.00 BRA MFN 200 400 TON 
2905.45.00 LKA GSP 40 90 TON 
2905.45.00 LKA Preference 2 10 10 TON 
2905.45.00 CHN MFN 10 20 TON 
 
References for import statistics:  
Year, Version of the HS nomenclature. Recorded in (units/thousand/…) of Currency (national/US dollars/…).  Exchange rate: national units per 1 US dollar. 
                                               
1 Notifications should be submitted electronically, in Excel, Access or similar formats. For more detailed 
technical guidelines see document G/MA/IDB/W/6 of 15 June 2000.  
2 The IDB notification requirements also include th e current bound duties and the binding situation for 
each tariff line. Following the establishment of the Co nsolidated Tariff Schedules database (CTS) final bound 
duties are available for all Members.  In view of the fact that for most Members final bound duties are now 
applicable, current bound duties and binding situatio n are no longer a priori ty for IDB submissions. G/MA/288 
 
- 4 - 
 
  System of trade (General/Special), Valuation (CIF/FOB). 
 
Other references for import statistics 
Example on national country codes            Example on quantity units 
 
code description 
AUS Australia 
BRA Brazil 
...  
 code description 
KG kilograms 
TON Tons 
...  
 
 
 
 
__________