RESTRICTED  
  
WT/ACC/SPEC/KAZ/10/Rev.4/Add.1  
 
2 October 2014  
(14-5557)  Page: 1/4  
Working Party on the  
Accession of Kazakhstan  Original: English  
 
 ACCESSION OF KAZAKHSTAN  
DRAFT CONSOLIDATED SCHEDULE OF TARIFF CO NCESSIONS AND COMMITMENTS ON GOODS ON 
THE ACCESSION OF KAZAKHSTAN – TECHNICAL VERIFICATION PROCESS 
SECRETARIAT CALCULATION OF AD VALOREM EQUIVALENTS (AVEs) 
Addendum 
 As follow-up to the circulation of the revised Draft Goods Schedule of Tariff Concessions and 
Commitments on the Accession of Kazakhstan (WT/ACC/SPEC/KAZ/10/Rev.4) on 26 August 2014 and the Fourth Technical Verification Meeting of Signatory Members, the Acceding Government of 
Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, held on 24 September 2014, the Secretariat has 
concluded the calculation of Ad Valorem Equivalents of Final Bound Rates, as requested by M e m b e r s .   C a l c u l a t e d  A V E s  w i l l  e n a b l e  c o m p a r i s o n  o f  t h o s e  t a r i f f  l i n e  c o n c e s s i o n s ,  w i t h  m i x e d  
and/or complex duty rates between the Acceding Government of Kazakhstan and the Schedule of 
Tariff Concessions and Commitments of the Russian Federation (CLXV).   
This document contains the following additional information available in English only: 
1. The list of Ad Valorem  Equivalents (AVEs) of Final Bound Rates (FBRs) including the initial 
890 tariff lines of the total 947 tariff lines where AVEs were required;  
2. Import data for the period 2009 to 2011, as provided by Kazakhstan;  
3. Import data sourced from the United Nations Statistics Division Comtrade database; and, 
4. The note describing the methodology used for the calculation of AVEs. 
 For ease of reference, this document has been forwarded by electronic mail.  This document 
consists of two Excel files and one Access database file (attached).   
 KzRfAVEs.xls: This Excel File comprises two worksheets:  (i) "Labels", which provides a 
brief description of the content of each column; and, (ii) "AVEs", containing data for calculating the ad-valorem equivalents of the FBRs;  
 140723_data.xls: This Excel File contains data for Kazakhstan in worksheet "RK import" 
and for the Russian Federation in worksheet "RF import".  This Excel File contains imports data (2009 to 2011), as provided by Kazakhstan.  (Imports from CIS countries are excluded); and,     
 ComTrade RfKz 2009-2011.mdb: This File contains three tables: [i] Imports; [ii] Partner 
codes for country of origin; and, [iii] Quantity unit codes.  Imports are at national tariff line level and by country of origin as extracted from the United Nations Statistics Division 
Comtrade database.   WT/ACC/SPEC/KAZ/10/Rev.4/Add.1 
 
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  Technical comments and questions, corrections, and/or requests for clarification, if any, should 
be addressed to the following: Mr. Eric Ng Shing ( Eric.NgShing@wto.org ); Ms. Maika Oshikawa; 
e-mail: Maika.Oshikawa@wto.org ; Mr. Mustapha Sekkate ( Mustapha.Sekkate@wto.org ), and 
Ms. Souda Tandara-Stenier ( Souda.Tandara-Stenier@wto.org ) in the Secretariat. 
The results of these negotiations will be incorporated in the revised and updated draft Tariff 
Consolidation to be circulated by the Secretar iat in the future as WT/ACC/SPEC/KAZ/10/Rev.5. 
 
 
_______________ 
 WT/ACC/SPEC/KAZ/10/Rev.4/Add.1 
 
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  SECRETARIAT CALCULATION OF AD VALOREM  EQUIVALENTS FOR THE COMPARISON OF 
THE FINAL BOUND RATES OF KAZAKHSTAN AND THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION  
GOODS SCHEDULE (CLXV) 
METHODOLOGY NOTE 
 
 1  SCOPE OF TARIFF LINES 
The 4
th revision of the Consolidated Draft Schedu le (WT/ACC/SPEC/KAZ/10/Rev.4) circulated 
on 26 August 2014 listed 947 tariff lines where the Final bound rate (FBR) of the Russian Federation could not be directly compared with Kazakhstan's draft FBR. The Secretariat was requested by the Chairman, as follow-up to the mandate given to him by Signatory Members at 
the Plurilateral Meeting on Tariff Adjustment last  22 July 2014, to generate ad-valorem equivalents 
(AVEs).  
Number of tariff lines in WT/ACC/SPEC/KAZ/10/Re v.4 flagged as AVE, by country and duty nature. 
 
 
Russian Federation Kazakhstan 
Ad-valorem Mixed Specific Total 
Ad-valorem  165 4 169 
Compound 26   26 
Mixed 226 25  251 
Specific 211 223  434 
Tariff rate quotas  67  67 
Total 463 480 4 947 
 
In some cases AVEs were calculated for both Kazakhstan's draft consolidated FBR and the 
Russian Federation's FBR. The table above shows that there were 25 tariff lines where in both 
Schedules the FBR duty was expressed using a mixed duty nature. Overall, 1,195 AVEs were 
computed to enable duty comparison.  
2  METHODOLOGY 
The methodology used to calculate AVEs is derived from the "Guidelines for the conversion 
of non-ad valorem duties of non-agricultural products into ad valorem equivalents" that were 
agreed through paragraph 18 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration (contained in document 
TN/MA/20). The same approach was applied to both agricultural and non-agricultural tariff lines concerned.   
 
3  SOURCE OF DATA 
Annual data on imports in the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan were provided to the 
Secretariat for each individual country at the national tariff line level (10-digit code). The period 
covered was 2009 to 2011, i.e. the most recent trade information collected in the 2007 version of the HS, matching the  HS version used to list bo th the Russian Federation's Schedule of tariff 
concessions and Kazakhstan's draft Schedule of tariff concessions. As of 2012, import statistics 
have been are collected in HS 2012. Data submit ted by Kazakhstan excluded imports originating 
from CIS countries into the markets of the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan.    
In addition to the data provided by Kazakhstan, the Secretariat also calculated unit values 
using imports from the world, sourced from the United Nations Statistics Division Comtrade 
database at the 10-digit level.  In cases where imports at the most detailed level were not 
available or, where volumes were recorded in a quantity unit different from that used in the FBR, 
unit values were computed at the HS 6-digit subh eading level. Unit value used to calculate AVEs 
were selected in the following sequence: WT/ACC/SPEC/KAZ/10/Rev.4/Add.1 
 
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 10-digit tariff line imports provided by Kazakhstan; 
 
 imports aggregated at the 6-digit HS subhea ding level based on the data provided by 
Kazakhstan; 
 
 10-digit tariff line data so urced from Comtrade; and,  
 
 imports aggregated at the 6-digit HS subheading level  sourced from Comtrade. 
 
In a simulation exercise, AVEs were calculated on the basis of both data sources detailed 
above. The resulting unit values and AVEs were compared in order to test whether the selection of 
either data source impacted the AVE calculation results. This test showed that, for the vast majority of tariff lines, the resulting AVEs were equivalent or equal, i.e. the resulting AVEs had a 
difference lower than 1 percentage point. This test also showed that there were 41 tariff lines 
where the resulting AVE differed by 1 or more perc entage point, depending on the source of data 
used as input for the calculations. 
 
 4  SIMPLIFICATIONS USED 
The FBRs of duty for 104 tariff lines relating to fruit and vegetable juices (heading 20.09) in 
the Russian Federation is expressed in litre, but th e quantity unit used to record import statistics 
was kilo. The Secretariat proceeded on the assumption that one litre was equivalent to 1 kilo.  
 
There was a lack of imports data for sugar (s ubheadings 1701 11 and 1701 91) in the market 
of the Russian Federation.  However, tariff line product descriptions provided price ranges which were used as a basis for estimating minimum and maximum AVEs, thus enabling the comparison 
with the ad-valorem duty in Kazakhstan's draft Goods Schedule. 
  5  OUTSTANDING ISSUES 
There are 9 tariff lines in Kazakhstan's draft Goods Schedule (8703: motor cars and motor 
vehicles) and 27 tariff lines in the Russian Federation's consolidated Schedule  (8701 to 8704) where FBRs were expressed in cm3 volume of engine while imports statistics available were 
recorded using a different quantity unit.  
 
There are 2 tariff lines (RF) where the FBR is expressed in 1000 pcs but import statistics 
available were recorded in kg.   
 
There are some 20 tariff lines where there was no import volume information recorded.  
Unit values at HS 4-digit heading level would be calculated by the Secretariat.  
 
Clarification is being sought as to the basis of duty comparison with regard to  67 tariff lines 
where there is a possible elimination of tariff rate quota contained in the Russian Federation 
Schedule's headnotes 3a), 3b) and 3e).   
  
 
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