G/L/1333  
 
4 November  2019 
(19-7374) Page: 1/3 
   
 
REPORT (201 9) 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 
20 November 2018 to 25 October 2019  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 certainty in the implementation of the provisions of Article VII of the 
GATT 1994; to establish a fair, unifo rm 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 tra nsaction 
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 May 2019  
(G/VAL/M/ 68) chaired by Mr Yuichiro  OKUMURA (Japan) ; and on 25 October 2019 (G/VAL/M/6 9)1, 
chaired by  Mr. Winega BAMANA (Togo) who was elected by the Committee on 7 June  2019.  
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 organ izations 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 the 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 M ember 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, 102 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 C ustoms Valuation Agreement remained valid under the WTO Customs Valuation 
Agreement (both figures count the European Union as one ). In addition, 73 Members have provided 
responses to the checklist of issues (see document s G/VAL/W/232/Rev. 10 and 
G/VAL/W/232 /Rev. 11).   
                                                
1 To be issued.  G/L/1333  
 
- 2 - 
 
  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 implementation and administration of the CVA  
− took note of  notification of national legislation from Burundi ( G/VAL/N/1/BDI/1) ; 
Myanmar ( G/VAL/N/1/MMR/1) ; Niger  (G/VAL/N/1/NER/1); and Togo ( G/VAL/N/1/TGO/1)  
and initiated review s; 
− took note of  notifications of amendments to national legislation from Dominican 
Republic (G/VAL/N/1/DOM/2); India (G/VAL/N/1/IND/4); the  Kyrgyz Republic 
(G/VAL/N/1/KGZ/2) and the Russian Federation (G/VAL/N/1/RUS/4,  
G/VAL/N/1/RUS/4/Add.1, and G/VAL/N/1/RUS/5) and initiated review s; 
- took note of notifications by Myanmar ( G/VAL/N/2/MMR/1 ) and The Gambia 
(G/VAL/N/2/GMB/1) of their Checklist of Issues.  India  notified an amended Checklist of 
Issues (G/VAL/N/2/IND/2);  
− continued its ongoing review of national legislations notified by the following Members : 
Kingdom of Bahrain; Belize; The Gambia; Guinea;  Honduras; Kazakhstan; Malawi; 
Nepal; N igeria;  the Russian  Federation; Rwanda; Solomon Islands and  Sri Lanka ]; 
− took note of document s G/VAL/W/232/ Rev.10 and G /VAL/W/232/Rev. 11 which were 
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 documents 
G/VAL/W/5/Rev. 31;  
- took note of notif ications from the Kingdom of Bahrain ( G/VAL/N/3/BHR/1 ); Cambodia 
(G/VAL/N/3/KHM/1 ); India (G/VAL/N/3/IND/1  and G/VAL/N/3/IND/2 ); and Montenegro 
(G/VAL/N/3/MNE/2 ); 
- took note of the statements made under the agenda item "Proposal by Uruguay 
(G/VAL/W/241/Re v.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 Switzerland (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 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  and its Members , as contained in 
documents  G/VAL/8/Add.3 8 and G/VAL/8/Add.3 9; and 
 - held a workshop entitled " Experience -Sharing Workshop  on Implementation of the 
Customs Valuation Agreement  and Ensuring that the Trade Facilitation Agreement 
supports  implementation of the CVA   including Technical Assistance and Capacity 
Building". The objective of the workshop was to have a n exchange among Members of 
their administrations' experiences in implementing the Customs Valuation Agreement, 
with a view to supporting least developed country Members to address their challenges 
and to consider how the Trade Facilitation Agreement could  support implementation of 
the Customs Valuation Agreement;  
(d) Specific Trade concerns  
 - at the meetings of 23 May and 25 October, took note of the statements made on 
 "Pakistan's determination of customs value s of paper ", raised by Thailand ; G/L/1333  
 
- 3 - 
 
   - at the meeting of 23 May took note of the statements made on "Tajikistan – issues 
related to customs valuation ", raised by Ukraine;  
(e) Preshipment Inspection Agreement  
 - took note of the report consolidating the status of all the notifications which had bee n 
received on preshipment inspection G/PSI/N/1/Rev.4 ). Angola;  Brazil;  Egypt;  and S aint 
Lucia submitted notifications under PSI;  
 - took note, at the meetings of 23 May and 25 October , of statements made under the 
agenda item of questions and responses by the United States and Indonesia, 
respectively;  
 - took note, at the meetings of 23 May and 25 October , of the latest report by the 
International Federation of Inspection Agencies (IF IA) concerning countries that use 
preshipment inspection services which were circulated in document  and 
G/VAL/W/63/Rev.2 4; 
 - took note that the fifth annual review of the PSI Agreement would take place in 2020;  
(f) Reports by The Technical Committee on Custom s Valuation  
 - took note of the reports by the World Customs Organization on the work of the Technical 
Committee on Customs Valuation, including its 4 8th session ( 13 to 17  May 2019), as 
well as related activities of the WCO  Secretariat . The 49th Session of the Technical 
Committee on Customs Valuation will take place from 4 to 8  November 2019 ;    
(g) Annual Review and Annual R eport to the Council for Trade i n Goods  
 - At the meeting of 25 October,  the Committee : 
- adopted  the Annual Review of the Implementati on and Operation of the Customs  
Valuation Agreement (G/VAL/ W/346 ), and requested the Secretariat to update it 
to take account of the 25 October  meeting ; and 
- adopted the Annual  Report to the Council for Trade in Goods (G/VAL/W/ 345) and 
requested the Secretariat to update it to take account of the 25 October  meeting . 
 
__________