Commitee on Customs Valuation - Status of notifications of national legislation on customs valuation and responses to the checklist of issues - Note by the Secretariat - Revision

Status of notifications of national legislation on customs
valuation and Response to the checklist of issues

Note by the Secretariat[1]

Revision

1.     Paragraph 2 of Article 22 of the Agreement on Customs Valuation (the Agreement) provides that Members shall inform the Committee of any changes in its laws and regulations relevant to the Agreement and in the administration of such laws and regulations. In addition, Paragraph i) of the "Decision on Notification and circulation of national legislation in accordance with Article 22 of the Agreement"[2] requires Members to submit the complete texts of their national legislation (laws, regulations, etc.) on customs valuation in one of the three official WTO languages. Finally, the Committee on Customs Valuation agreed that Members should respond in writing to the points contained in the checklist of issues.[3]

2.     At its meeting of 25 October 2012[4], the Committee on Customs Valuation agreed that the status of the notifications mentioned in paragraph 1 above, which was previously summarized as annexes to the Annual Review of the Agreement and Report to the Council for Trade in Goods, should be merged into a separate document. Annex 1 to this document provides an overview of Members' notifications, with respect of national legislation on customs valuation and replies to the checklist of issues.

3.     At its meeting of 7 October 2015[5], the Chairperson of the Committee on Customs Valuation requested the Secretariat to compile a list of documents which contain the questions and answers submitted on each national legislation. Annex 2 to this document provides this information.



[1] This document has been prepared under the Secretariat's own responsibility and is without prejudice to the positions of Members or to their rights and obligations under the WTO.

[2] Section B.2 of document G/VAL/5. Paragraph iii) of the same Decision provides that for WTO Members who were signatories of the Tokyo Round Code on Customs Valuation, and whose legislation had already been examined, a communication from those Members could be sent to the WTO Secretariat indicating that legislation notified under the Tokyo Round Customs Valuation Agreement remained valid under the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement with a specific reference to the document containing the legislation. See column 2 of the Annex.

[3] Section B.3 and Annex of document G/VAL/5.

[4] G/VAL/M/54, paragraphs 8.3 and 8.4.

[5] G/VAL/M/61, paragraph 1.88.