Customs Tariffs System: Customs Valuation

Customs valuation is a major feature of modern Customs tariff systems. It is important for the assessment of Customs duties, whether for purposes of producing revenue or as a means of encouraging and protecting domestic industry. It is also a significant element in a variety of other aspects of international trade such as statistics, quota and licensing arrangements, taxes and other charges levied at importation and in the application of preference systems.

Certain valuation practices can have restrictive effects on international trade and were recognized at the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations. These negotiations, which took place between 1973 and 1979 within GATT[1] in Geneva, were one of the major trade policy initiatives of our time; they were intended, “to achieve the expansion and ever-greater liberalization of world trade, inter alia[2], through the progressive dismantling of obstacles to trade”[3].

Customs valuation came under study within this framework and one of the results of the negotiations was the adoption of the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the GATT, which established a positive system of Customs valuation based on the actual price of the imported goods.

The Agreement, which entered into force on 1 January 1981, is intended to provide a fair, uniform and neutral system for the valuation of goods for Customs purposes; a system that conforms to commercial realities, and which outlaws the use of arbitrary or fictitious Customs values.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) notes that Customs value should, to the greatest extent possible, be based on the price actually paid or payable for the goods being valued; this price, subject to certain adjustments, is called the “transaction value”. The latter should be the Customs value in the great majority of importation and constitute the primary basis for valuation under the Agreement. Where there is no transaction value, or where the transaction value cannot be accepted because the price has been influenced by distortions resulting from certain conditions or restrictions, the Agreement provides for five other methods of determining Customs value, to be applied in a prescribed order, namely:

- the transaction value of goods identical to the goods being valued;

- the transactions value of goods similar to the goods being valued;

- the deductive method;

- the computed value method;

- the “fall-back” method.

The Agreement also contains certain other provisions concerning, for example, currency conversion, the right of appeal to a judicial authority, the publication of law and regulations concerning Customs valuation, and the prompt clearance of goods.

A protective tariff is a financial decision by a government to apply a tax on the importation of foreign goods. This tariff is used to inflate import prices in order to protect the value of domestic merchandise that can be produced in the home country.

Exercise 6. Complete the following sentences.

1. Customs valuation is a ____________.

2. Customs valuation is important for purposes of __________.

3. Customs valuation is also a significant element in a __________.

4. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is intended to provide a __________.

5. The “transaction value” should be the ___________.

6. The Agreement also contains ___________.

7. A protective tariff is used to ___________.

Exercise 7. Render the text below into English.

Use the following words and word-combinations:

foreign trade regulation; tool of trade policy; interaction; set of Customs duty rates; goods (commodity) nomenclature of foreign economic activity; Customs tariff concept, movement of goods, be payable, notion, coincide, common tool, blanket tariff.

Классическим инструментом регулирования внешней торговли является таможенный тариф, который по характеру своего действия относится к экономическим регуляторам внешней торговли.

Таможенный тариф в зависимости от контекста может определяться как:

- инструмент торговой политики и государственного регулирования внутреннего рынка страны при его взаимодействии с мировым рынком;

- свод ставок таможенных пошлин, применяемых к товарам, перемещаемым через таможенную границу, систематизированный в соответствии с товарной номенклатурой ВЭД;

- конкретная ставка таможенной пошлины, подлежащей уплате при вывозе или ввозе определенного товара на таможенную территорию страны. В этом случае понятие таможенного тарифа полностью совпадает с понятием таможенной пошлины.

Обычно таможенный тариф применяется на национальном уровне, но в Таможенном Союзе тариф становится общим инструментом внешнеторгового регулирования, единым для всех стран-участниц в их торговых отношениях с третьими странами.

 Hints:

In improving English fluency skills learn “blocks” (language chunks) not just individual words

 

Exercise 8. Read the text “Types of Payments in Foreign Trade” to match left and right:

1) legal action	a) предоплата (оплата авансом)
2) bill of exchange	b) оплата товара
3) banker’s transfer	c) перевод денег
4) a debtor	d) аккредитив
5) payment of goods	e) судебное разбирательство
6) open account terms	f) безупречная репутация
7) a creditor	g) банковский перевод
8) a single isolated transaction	h) переводной вексель
9) transference of money	i) условия оплаты по открытому счету
10) unquestionable reputation	j) дебитор, должник
11) payments in advance	k) кредитор
12) letter of credit	l) единичная (разовая) сделка

 

Text 2