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.