Customs value

The customs value of goods is the basis for the assessment of duties and taxes. It would be complicated for international trade to operate if each country would use its own valuation methods. Therefore international valuation rules were developed. These rules are also used for the purposes of trade statistics, trade agreements and to monitor quantitative restrictions.

“Customs value“ of imported goods on the international scale means the value as determined in accordance with the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (WTO Agreement on Customs Valuation).

WTO Agreement on Customs Valuation sets out that the value for customs purposes of imported merchandise should be based on the actual value of the imported merchandise on which duty is assessed, or of like merchandise, and should not be based on the value of merchandise of national origin or on arbitrary or fictitious values.

"Actual value" should be the price at which, at a time and place determined by the legislation of the country of importation, such or like merchandise is sold or offered for sale in the ordinary course of trade under fully competitive conditions. To the extent to which the price of such or like merchandise is governed by the quantity in a particular transaction, the price to be considered should uniformly be related to either (i) comparable quantities, or (ii) quantities not less favorable to importers than those in which the greater volume of the merchandise is sold in the trade between the countries of exportation and importation.

Please find the text of Article VII. This document is published on the WCO website.