Committee reviews customs value notifications, outlines efforts to enhance transparency

Notifications

At a formal meeting on 10 November the WTO's Committee on Customs Valuation reviewed 63 notifications pertaining to the customs valuation legislation of 37 members, including the first notifications received from Guyana and Indonesia.  Four of the member reviews - for Cabo Verde, Mauritania, Philippines, and Senegal - were concluded at the meeting.

The Chair of the Committee, Ms Judith Yu-Ying Kuo (Chinese Taipei) noted that 121 members had now notified their national legislation on customs valuation, and 94 Members had provided responses to the checklist of issues regarding implementation of the WTO's Customs Valuation Agreement.

The Committee also adopted a draft report to the WTO's Council on Trade in Goods on the status of customs valuation notifications to the Committee. The report was requested by the Chair of the Goods Council with the aim of improving the rate, quality and timeliness of customs valuation notifications The report underlines the value of experience sharing, workshops and outreach to increase the Committee's understanding of the challenges faced by members unable to meet their notification obligations.

World Customs Organization (WCO)

An official from the World Customs Organization's Technical Committee on Customs Valuation shared information on a new instrument adopted at its 61^st session in October: an explanatory note on "price actually paid or payable" which is a fundamental principal of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement's valuation methodology.

The official also updated the Committee on the WCO's draft Guidelines on E-Commerce Fulfilment and its Implications for Customs which was developed by the WCO Permanent Technical Committee.  The Guidelines aim to help members and stakeholders in dealing with the growing volume of small, low-value consignments ordered online and destined for consumers.

Information session on preshipment inspection (PSI)

The Committee also agreed to hold one or more information sessions to understand better preshipment inspection activities and to hold further discussions on the PSI Independent Entity, which is a dispute settlement mechanism under the WTO's Agreement on Preshipment Inspection.

Preshipment inspection is the practice of employing specialized private companies to check shipment details - essentially price, quantity, quality - of goods ordered overseas.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Committee will take place on 8 May 2026.

Learn more about customs valuation here.