WTO Seminar on Technical Assistance in Customs Valuation

1
WTO Seminar on Technical Assistance in Customs
Valuation

• Developing capacity building in the area of
  customs valuation
• - a perspective from the Commonwealth Secretariat
• Presented by
• Angela Strachan
• Chief Programme Officer
• Special Advisory Services Division
• Commonwealth Secretariat

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Trade and Commonwealth States

• The Commonwealth
• 54 countries
• 30 of the world s population
• 32 small states
• 14 LDCs
• 23 of world trade
• 40 of WTO membership

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Trade and Commonwealth States

• WORK PROGRAMME IN TRADE
• Goals
• To assist developing countries to protect their
  interests and benefit from trade, investment and
  new information technology
• To provide practical assistance that supports
  their efforts to achieve the Millennium
  Development Goals
• To promote international attention to and provide
  support for the special needs of small states

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Trade and Commonwealth States

• Assistance to
• Develop and implement trade policy capacity
• Promote regional integration
• Expand enterprise development
• Implement emerging priority areas for the
  Commonwealth

5
ACV Implementation concerns

• Economic, political and infrastructural
  challenges
• High turnover of customs personnel in some
  administrations
• Fear of loss of Customs revenue since imported
  duties and related taxes still represent a
  significant of total revenue in most countries
• Political instability
• Informal trade
• Presence of PSI companies
• Insufficient political will

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Trade Capacity Building Customs Valuation

• CFTC/WTO sponsored Training programmes to better
  understand Article V11 of the GATT and to better
  implement spirit of the Agreement (ACV)
• Accomplishments to date
• 2000 and 2001
• ACV training programme done for 33 countries from
  Africa, Asia,Pacific and the Caribbean
• 2002
• 34 customs officials from English speaking Africa
  will take part in 2 week training course in
  South Africa (11-22, Nov)
• 2003
• French instructed Course designed for
  Francophone African countries (possible venue-
  Mauritius)
• Training programmes are unique combination of
  lectures, case studies,group work and on-the-job
  training
• Plus Handbook on Frequently Asked Questions on
  Customs Valuation

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Customs Valuation Trainingbeneficiary countries
2000 - 2002

• Mauritius, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya,
  Swaziland,Lesotho,Namibia
• Malawi, Seychelles,Zimbabwe
• Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt,
• Zimbabwe
• Project Partners
• WTO, WCO,
• plus Host country
• Revenue Authority/Customs Administration
• -India (2000, 2001)
• -South Africa (2002)
• ,

• Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica,Kiribati,Tong
  a,Tuvalu,
• Solomon Islands,Vanuatu,
• Samoa,Maldives, Tanzania
• Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana,Nigeria,
  Maldives, Brunei Darussalam,
• Fiji, Papua New Guinea
• Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Mozambique, Botswana
• Philippines,Laos, Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal
• (N.B. Non-Commonwealth funded by WTO)

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ACV Implementation concerns

• High levels of tariff encourage undervaluation
  and other valuation fraud
• Commonwealth developing countries rely heavily on
  revenue from customs duties
• Avg. 30 -60 percent of Govt. Revenue
• More time required to develop infrastructure
  including
• legislation
• human resources
• administrative procedures

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ACV Implementation concerns

• Core capacity building needs
• Design and adopt model customs legislation
• Establish Valuation Divisions
• Design and deliver public education programmes
• Develop training material incl.procedures manuals
• Acquire or update computer systems
• Develop declaration forms
• Develop valuation databases
• Develop and implement appeals mechanisms

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ACV Implementation concerns

• Computed value method presents some difficulty
  because of inability to get
• Information
• On cost of production in developed countries
• Other elements of cost
• Other Issues such as
• - Distance from manufacturing locations
• Confidentiality regarding commercial costing
• Insufficient confidence in levels/type of mutual
  assistance provided by customs administrations
  in developed countries

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ACV Technical Assistance Best Practices

• Modality for training programmes
• practical courses required
• Target group for training need to be senior
  officials
• Sustainability of assistance is an issue
• South -south assistance is desirable in many cases

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ACV technical assistance needs to enhance WTO
compliance

• In depth training on the ACV
• Attachments to suitable administrations of
  comparable size and effective competence based on
  applying the Agreement
• Assistance to develop the machinery for appeals
  as provided for in legislation
• Introduction of computerisation and databases in
  Valuation Divisions - essential to facilitate
  administration of the identical value method,
  similar value method and deductive value method
• Assistance with developing and administering an
  ACV implementation plan and work programme
• Assistance with developing funding briefs for
  donors

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Notes for Consideration

• Problems universal but solutions local - so each
  country encouraged to develop recommendations to
  solve its own constraints
• Further CFTC technical assistance possible
  particularly where other donors have an interest.