RESTRICTED  
  
G/VAL/W/312  
 
12 November 2018  
(18-7126) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Customs Valuation    
 
DRAFT  
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 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 certainty in the implementation of the provisions of Article VII of the 
GATT 1994; to establish a fair, unifor m 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 tran saction 
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 Lucian a NADER (Uruguay) ; and on 19 November 2018 (G/VAL/M/67)1, 
chaired by Mr Yuichiro OKUMURA (Japan)  who was elected by the Committee at the meeti ng of 
23 April 2018. It also held two informal meetings on 10 July and 27 September 2018 . 
1.3. Participation in th e 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 and the IMF had observer status by 
virtue of the Agreements between these organizations and the WTO.  
1.4. The Committee's rules o f 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 the 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, 99 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 Agreement remained valid under the WTO Cus toms 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 (see document s G/VAL/W/232/R ev.9).   
                                                
1 To be issued.  G/VAL/W/312  
 
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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 implementation and administration of the CVA  
- continued its review of national legislations notified by Members . [At the meeting of 
19 November , the Committee concluded the review [s] of the national legislations of 
[…]. The legislation s of the following [14] Members  remain under review : [the Kingdom 
of Bahrain; Belize; China; Guinea;  Honduras; Kazakhstan; Malawi; Nepal; N igeria;  
the Russian  Federation; Rwanda; Solomon Islands;  Sri Lanka and The  Gambia ]; 
- 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 
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.28 . During the period und er 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 
Softwar e 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, a nd Uruguay's  responses to questions raised by one delegation 
(G/VAL/ W/264 ).  At the meeting of  19 November [the Committee …] ; 
- had discussions on how best to respond to a request for technical assistance raised at 
the meeting of 23 April by some LDCs that  were experiencing implementation 
challenges. At the meeting of 19 November, the Committee agreed to hold an 
experience -sharing workshop on [14 February 2019.] ; 
(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. 36 and G/VAL/8/ Add.3 7;  
 
(d) Specific Trade concerns  
- 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 Switzerland;  
(iv) "Tajikistan – issues related to customs valuation ", raised by Ukraine.  
 
At the meeting of 19 November, the Committee […];  
 
(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 ; G/VAL/W/312  
 
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  - 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 . At the meeting of 19 November, the 
Committee  […]; 
- 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. At the meeting of 19 November, the Committee  […]; 
- took note, at the meetings of 23  April and 19 November, of the latest reports by the 
International Federation of Inspection Agencies (IFIA) concerning countries that use 
preshipment inspection services which were circulated in documents  and 
G/VAL/W/63/Rev.22 and G/VAL/W/63/Rev.232; 
- took note of t he work of the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation and related 
activities of the WCO  Secretariat . 
(f) Reports by The Technical Committee on Customs Valuation  
- took note of the reports by the World Customs Organization on the work of the Tec hnical 
Committee on Customs Valuation, including its 46th session (8  to 12 May 2017) and 
47th session (23 to 26 October 2017), as well as related activities 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), 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 Council for Trade in Goods took place on 
12 November, the Annua l Report was submitted directly to the General Council. ] 
 
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2 To be issued.