The customs valuation agreement: origin, standards and interpretations

In: Global trade law series volume 58

Abstract

The Customs Valuation Agreement, authored by a world-renowned specialist lawyer in the field, is a highly knowledgeable analysis furnishing the most extensive study of the origins and architecture of the Customs Valuation Agreement and its intersection with transfer pricing norms. Customs valuation is a critical element in the corpus of international trade law. Although the WTO Valuation Agreement 1994 remains unchanged in all material respects and has been adopted by virtually every trading nation on the planet, there are fissures in the system preventing consensus on many contentious questions. This unique book concentrates on diverging views on the nature of the central feature of the Agreement, the definition of the price actually paid or payable (PAPP). Inter alia, the author thoroughly explains differing views on the following questions: criteria governing royalties and license fees; acceptability of the First Sale for Export doctrine; role of transport charges in valuing dutiable assists; status of interest payments on deferred payments; valuation of carrier media-bearing software for data processing equipment; inclusion or exclusion of transport charges in the PAPP; status of the WTO's moratorium on electronic transmissions; status of payments of money for tools and other materials used in producing the imported goods; and status of international instruments of traffic. Proficiently, the author analyzes interpretations of the Valuation Agreement as presented in the instruments of the World Customs Organization and the administrative and judicial fora of the United States, Canada, and the European Union