| Since China has become a full member of World Trade Organization (WTO) on 11 December, 2001, China Customs began to fulfill the commitments made by the government which includes modification of national valuation regulations and implementation of WTO Valuation Agreement. The WTO Valuation Agreement is a component of WTO multilateral trade agreements in which the diversity of international trade prices and practices are envisaged. It is also highlighted that arbitrary or fictitious valuation system should be abolished and customs value should be, to the possible extent, determined on the basis of transaction value. Only in case that transaction value cannot be accepted by Customs, the customs value of imported goods may be determined in accordance with the stipulated order of application of other valuation methods.In order to meet the requirements set by implementation of WTO Valuation Agreement, it is vitally important to restructure and complete Customs Valuation legislation. Little research has been done in this field for lack of specialists. The author has been personally involved in Customs valuation for years by participating in the preparation and review of the implementation of WTO valuation agreement after China's access to the WTO. Through these experiences, he could feel the importance and arduousness of this job. Recent years have seen the progress made and problems existed in valuation legislation. The article briefed main content of the WTO valuation agreement, history of valuation legislation and basic framework. It also drew a conclusion through analysis on the problem existed in current valuationregulations by comparing entative, procedural articles and right/obligation. The author finally raised his own opinion on the solutions to completing national valuation legislation.The first part of the article included the background and main content of the WTO Valuation Agreement. The necessity and possibility of establishing a uniformed Customs Valuation system was demonstrated by analyzing four phases of the development of valuation methods, namely, the definition of actual price in Article 7 of " General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT)", the definition of normal price in "Brussels Customs Valuation Agreement" and the definition of transaction price in both "Customs Valuation Agreement of GATT" and "WTO Customs Valuation Agreement". Through an introduction to the above-mentioned phases, the essences of international Customs valuation legislation were disclosed. Apart from those, this part also included the principles of the Agreement, valuation methods, rights/obligation of customs and importers and negotiation progress made ever since the WTO ministerial level meeting held in Doha which paved the way for further analysis. The highlight of the article is the second part. Beginning with the background of China's current customs valuation regulations and its evolution, it compared the difference between "WTO Valuation Agreement" and the current customs valuation regulations in China in the aspects of entitative articles, procedural articles, as well as the rights and obligations of customs and the importers, using the method of analysis. Through the experience of the author himself, the review of the transitional trade policy towards our valuation regulations by the WTO was discussed. Bycomparing the discrepancies and analyzing the question list issued by other members of WTO during the review, some problems in current valuation regulations were presented. Such as some important entitative articles in the Regulation of Valuation are too abstract to be carried out, the procedural provisions over related persons may have the possibility to transfer the onus probandi to the importers, and the quotation of Decision 6.1 of WTO Committee on Customs Valuation is biased, and so on. These will have effects on the customs enforcement of valuation and the rights and obligations of the parties concerned. Aiming at the problems above, the author gave some advice on how to... |
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