G/L/1199  
 
8 November  2017 
(17-6065) Page: 1/3 
   
 
 REPORT (201 7) 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 Agreement) entered into force on 1 January 1995.  This report covers the period 
from 3 November 2016 to 25 October 2017 and addresses the work undertaken by the Committee 
on Customs Valuation (the Committee) in respect of the objectives of the Agreement.  These are:   to 
provide greater uniformity and cer tainty in the implementation of the provisions 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; to 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 peri od under consideration, the Committee held two formal meetings:  on 
15 May 2017 (G/VAL/M/ 64) under the Chair person ship of Dr Yasser Korani (Egypt) , and on 
6 November 2017 (G/VAL/M/6 5, (to be issued)) under the Chair person ship of Ms Luciana Nader  
(Uruguay ) who was elected  by the Committee at the meeting of 15 May 2017 . 
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 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 a nd the IMF had observer status 
by virtue of the Agreements between these 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 
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 of paragraph 1, Annex III  of the Agreement .   
2.2. To date, 9 8 Members have notified their national legislation on customs valuation, including 
16 Members which have submitted communicatio ns 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 ). In addition, 6 6 Members have 
provided responses to the checklist of issues. There are 3 6 Members which have not yet made 
either  of these two notifications (see document s G/VAL/W/232/Rev. 7 and 
G/VAL/W/232/Rev.7/Corr.1 ).   G/L/1199  
 
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  3. ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE  
3.1. The Committee carried out the following activities dur ing the period under review:  
(a) Review of i nformation on implementation and administration of the CVA  
- continued its review of national legislations notified by Members . The Committee 
concluded the reviews of the national legislations of Cabo Verde, Colombia,  Ecuador, 
Montenegro and Nicaragua at the meeting of 15 May . The legislation s of the following 
13 Members  remain under review :  the K ingdom of Bahrain; Belize; Guinea;  
Honduras; Kazakhstan; Malawi; Nepal; N igeria;  the Russian  Federation; Rwanda; 
the Solomo n Islands; Sri Lanka; and The Gambia ; 
- took note of document s G/VAL/W/232/Rev.6 ; G/VAL/W/232/Rev.6/Corr.1 ; 
G/VAL/W/232/Rev.7 and G/VAL/W/232/Rev.7/Corr.1  which were issued by the 
Secretariat during the period under review  and which summariz ed the latest  status of 
notifications ; and 
- agreed a t the 15 May meeting  to remove  from the agenda the implementation  issue 
relating to Paragraph 12 of the Doha Ministerial  Declaration, which related to c ustoms  
cooperation . 
(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 "Va luation of Carrier Media 
Bearing Software for Data Processing Equipment"  as contained in documents 
G/VAL/W/5/Rev.27 and G/VAL/W/5/Rev.28 ; and 
- The Committee suspended, at the 15 May meeting, its ongoing discussions on a 
proposal by Uruguay (G/VAL/W/241/Rev. 1) to update the Decision on the Valuation of 
Carrier Media Bearing Software for Data Processing Equipment until the next meeting 
of the Committee. At the 6 November meeting, the Committee agreed to revert to the 
issue at its next meeting. Additional docum ents related to this item include a related 
proposal by Switzerland (G/VAL/W/254), a report with statistics on imports of those 
products (G/VAL/W/249), which was prepared by the Secretariat at the Committee's 
request, and Uruguay's responses to questions r aised by one delegation 
(G/VAL/W/264).  
  
(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 (TCCV) concerning 
technical assistance activities carrie d out by the WCO  and its Members , as contained 
in documents  G/VAL/8/Add.34 ; G/VAL/8/Add.35 ; and G/VAL/8/ Add.35 /Corr.1.  
(d) Issues related to implementation of the Agreement  
- 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, and agreed to revert to it at the next meeting ;  
(ii) Pakistan's determination of customs value s of paper  – raised by Thailand, and 
agreed to revert to it at the next  meeting ; 
(iii) Colombia 's reference pricing system imposed in accordance with Decree 
No. 1745 issued by the Ministerio de Hacienda y Credito Publico on 
2 November  2016, impacting the release of goods and in particular apparel 
import – raised by Canada at the 6 November meeting , and agreed to revert to 
it at the next meeting ; G/L/1199  
 
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  - took note, a t the 15 May meeting, that Ukraine, under the scope of the reform of 
5 October 2016, had abolished the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine 
No. 724, which re ferred to the use of benchmarks for customs valuation of goods i n 
the system of risk management.  
(e) Preshipment Inspection Agreement  
- took note of the Secretariat updat e on the status of notifications on preshipment  
inspection  that were circulated in document s G/PSI/N/1/Rev. 2/Add.4 and 
G/PSI/N/1/Rev. 3; 
- took note of updated report s by the International Federation of Inspection A gencies 
(IFIA) as  circulated in document s G/VAL/W/63/ Rev.20  and G/VAL/W/63/Rev.21 ;  
- took note  of statements made under the agenda item "Egypt's status of Notification of 
PSI" which had been included at the request of the United States and which was 
referred to in document G/VAL/W/299, circulated at the request of the United States 
and agreed to revert to it at the next meeting ; 
- took note of statements made under the agenda item of questions and responses by 
the United States and Indonesia, respectively , and agreed to revert to it at the next 
meeting ; and 
- undertook the Fourth  Triennial Review pursuant to Article 6 of the PSI Agreement  and 
in the context of the review, agreed to look at an amendment proposed by Thailand 
relating to Article 2.4 of the PSI Agreement, once the proposal had been submitted in 
writing.  A  draft factual report prepared by the Secretariat and circulated in document  
G/VAL/W/ 307 will be updated following the completion of the Review.   
 
(f) The work of the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation and related activities of the 
WCO Secretariat    
- took note of the reports by the World Customs Organization on the work of the  TCCV,  
including its 44th session (8 to 12 May 2017) and 45th session (23 to 
26 October  2017), as well as related ac tivities of the WCO  Secretariat. At the 44th 
Session, the TTCV adopted Advisory Opinion 4.17 regarding Royalties and Licence 
Fees under Arti cle 8.1 (c) of the Customs Valuation Agreement , which was ap proved 
by the WCO Council in July 2017.  The 44th Session also included a thematic day which 
addressed customs valuation risk management and the valuation aspects of 
e-commerce.  
(g) Annual Review and  Annual R eport to the Council for Trade i n Goods  
- At the meeting of 6 November the Committee : 
- adopted  the Annual Review of the Implementati on and Operation of the 
Customs  Valuation Agreement (G/VAL/W/ 305)1, and requested the Secretariat 
to update it to take account of the 6 November  meeting;  and 
- adopted the Annual Report to the Council for Trade in Goods (G/VAL/W/ 306), 
and requested the Secretariat to update it to take account of the 6 November  
meeting . 
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1 Issued as  document G/L/1198.