WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/VAL/N/4/MRT/1
14 December 2000
(00-5417)
Committee on Customs Valuation Original:  French
NOTIFICATION CONCERNING THE DECISION UNDER PARAGRAPH 1
OF ANNEX III OF THE AGREEMENT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF
ARTICLE VII OF THE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON
TARIFFS AND TRADE 1994
MAURITANIA
The following communication, dated 6 December 2000, has been received from the
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
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The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania has the honour to enclose
herewith the first report submitted by the competent authorities pursuant to the second paragraph ofthe Decision of 31 May 2000 granting Mauritania a two-year extension under paragraph 1 of
Annex III of the Agreement on Customs Valuation.
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The Mauritanian Government has established a work programme for the implementation of
the Agreement on Customs Valuation in accordance with the Decision of 31 May 2000 of the
Committee on Customs Valuation granting Mauritania a two-year exemption under paragraph 1 of
Annex III of the Agreement.
The following steps have been taken in this connection:
I. ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMISSION FOR FOLLOW-UP OF THE
AGREEMENT ON CUSTOMS VALUATION
A Commission for follow-up of the Customs Valuation Agreement has been set up within  the
Directorate-General of Customs.
This Commission works in coordination with the other competent departments to ensure
implementation of the Agreement in suitable condi tions while complying with the time-limit granted
by the Committee on Customs Valuation.  To this end it has drawn up a detailed work programme.
II. ADAPTATION OF LEGISLATION
The legal provisions on the definition of customs value are set out in Article 26 of the
Customs Code.G/VAL/N/4/MRT/1
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A revision of this text with a view to integrating the provisions of GATT Article VII is under
way and will be submitted to Parliament for approval next year.
III. REFORMS AND MODERNIZATION OF STRUCTURES
In a context of globalization, Mauritania has adopted a plan to reorganize its public finances.
As the main source of State revenues, the customs administration is at the centre of this action.  It has
undertaken to modernize its structures and adapt its procedures to the new rules of international trade.
1. Decentralization
In view of the country's size (over one million km2) and the need to develop the regions of the
interior, the Government has decentralized the customs administration by setting up five interregional
directorates.
2. Application of the Harmonized System nomenclature
Mauritania adopted the international Convention on the Harmonized System (HS) through the
Finance Act for the year 2000 and at the same time published a national customs tariff based on that
nomenclature.
The new tariff also includes a correspondence table between the HS and CCCN
nomenclatures to facilitate classification of products under the HS nomenclature and process trade
statistics on the basis of series made up from the two systems.
3. Computerization of customs clearance procedures
Mauritania was one of the first users of the ASYCUDA system (1985).  While this system has
had a significant impact on customs performance and the quality of foreign trade statistics, a recent
evaluation of this project showed that it was not sufficiently involved in the process of customs
clearance and collection of duties and charges.
Work is currently under way to strengthen and expand its functions so as to generalize its use
for all customs procedures.  This has lead to the computerization of all customs clearance and
collection procedures at the Nouakchott-Port customs office, which handles 60 per cent of national
traffic.
Private operators have been heavily involved in this action, which is producing encouraging
results.  The customs brokers and agents are now connected to the ASYCUDA network for real-time
processing of manifests and customs declarations.
This generalization of ASYCUDA based on the 2.7 version will soon be extended to all the
other customs offices.
4. Prospects for migrating to version 3 of SYDONIA +++
Owing to the technical limitations of version 2 and its outdated technological environment,
UNCTAD will no longer provide maintenance for it as from 2002.  It has recommended that user
countries migrate to version 3.
This migration will involve implementation of a project that can support all the actions
envisaged for version 3, and also require establishing the necessary prior conditions for installing it:G/VAL/N/4/MRT/1
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- Adoption and use of the Harmonized System (already in use);
- adoption and use of th e DAU declaration model;
- use of the IM, EX and COM type customs regime models.Mauritania has made good progress in this process, and two years ago already submitted a
request to UNCTAD to migrate to version 3.  This  migration is supposed to take place in the
framework of an ECOWAS Community project financed by the European Union, and is currently
foreseen within a framework for Mauritania alone as it is not a member of that subregional
organization.
The project for migrating to version 3 of ASYCUDA +++ comprises:
Conversion proper:
- Hardware and software migration;- functional migration (codification, harmonization, tables);- functional technical training;
- conversion of historic databases;
- opening of the system by de veloping communication interfaces.
Arabization of the ASYCUDA software:
- Translation of working materials;- translation of reference tables (tariff, national procedure codes);- bilingual training of users.
Efforts are being made to obtain financial resources from various donors but for the time
being no pledges have yet been made.
IV. TRAINING OF USERS
Two information and sensitization seminars were organized in 1999 and 2000 with the
assistance of the WCO and WTO, respectively.
These seminars were aimed at the various categories of Customs Service staff and private
operators, and dealt with the valuation methods and rules introduced by the Agreement.
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