Customs and the World Trade Organisation

EENI- School of International Business

Subject: Customs and the WTO (World Trade Organisation). Syllabus:

1. The role of the World Trade Organisation on Customs
2. The Multilateral Trading System
3. The Agreements of the World Trade Organisation
   1. Tariffs
   2. Agriculture
   3. Standards and safety
   4. Textiles
   5. Anti-dumping, subsidies, and safeguards
   6. Non-tariff barriers
4. The Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures
5. The Agreement on Customs Valuation
6. Rules for the valuation of goods at customs
7. Methods for the valuation of goods:
   1. Transaction value
   2. Identical or similar goods
   3. Deductive or computed method
   4. Fall-back
8. The Pre-shipment Inspection Agreement
9. The Rules of Origin Agreement
10. The Customs and Regional Trade Agreements
11. The Customs Procedures and the Doha agenda

The objectives of the subject “The Customs and the World Trade Organisation” are to understand the

1. Role of the World Trade Organisation in customs the custom procedures
2. WTO's agreements
3. Fundamental concepts related to customs: non-tariff barriers, customs valuation, transaction value, pre-shipment inspection, rules of origin, and import licences
4. Methods for the valuation of goods

Sample of the subject (Customs and the World Trade Organisation):

Description of the Subject (Customs and the World Trade Organisation):

Import licensing

In international trade, import licensing are administrative procedures that need the compliance of documentation to the administrative organisation as a previous condition for importation of products.

The Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures of the World Trade Organisation refers to “import licensing should be simple, transparent and predictable.”

Customs valuation.

The Customs valuation is a procedure applied by customs to find out the “Customs value of imported products.”

In the case that the rate of duty is “ad valorem,” the customs value is necessary to find out the duty to be paid on an imported product.

For importers, the process of estimating the value of a product at customs can present some troubles.

The World Trade Organisation agreement on customs valuation aims for a fair, uniform and neutral system for the valuation of goods for customs objectives.

The World Trade Organisation agreement on customs valuation defines that customs valuation should (excluding in specified circumstances) be based on the actual price of the products (usually marked on the invoice). The following six methods are considered in the Agreement on Customs of the WTO:

1. Transaction value
2. Transaction value of identical products
3. Transaction value of similar products
4. Deductive method
5. Computed method
6. Fall-back method

Transaction value is the price paid by the importer to the benefit of the exporter for the imported products.

Pre-shipment inspection

When the exporter or the importer outsource specialised private companies to control shipment details (price, quantity, and quality) of products. The Pre-shipment Inspection Agreement recognises that General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) principles and obligations apply to these activities of pre-shipment.

Rules of Origin

The “Rules of origin” define where a product was produced. The concept of rules and certificate of origin is a fundamental pillar of the international trade rules (quotas, preferential tariffs, anti-dumping, or counter export subsidies)

(Source: World Trade Organisation).