. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/VAL/W/58/Add.3
18 May 2000
(00-2037)
Committee on Customs Valuation Original:  French
COMMUNICATION FROM THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF MAURITANIA
CONCERNING ANNE X III, PARAGRAPH 1, OF  THE AGREEMENT
ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE VII OF THE GENERAL
AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE 1994
Addendum
The following communication, dated 8 May 2000, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Mauritania.
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Further to our previous correspondence, I have the honour to transmit herewith a supplement
to the set of arguments submitted by the competent Mauritanian authorities with a view to postponing
for three more years the application of the Agreement on Customs Valuation.
1. The application of this Agreement will require substantial amendment of the customs
legislation in force, particularly the Customs Code.
The process of preparing and adopting these legal amendments, which has already begun, will
take at least three years.
The application of the Agreement will also require a reorganization of the customs
administrative services and training of the staff responsible for applying the new provisions.
2. The flexibility introduced by the valuation method prescribed by the WTO Agreement to
facilitate international trade could encourage certain fraudulent practices, if particular precautions
were not taken.
The customs auxiliaries and the economic operators in general will have to be the target of a
very broad information campaign if negative repercussions on the collection of duties are to be
avoided.
3. The Mauritanian customs administration has, for some years, been faced with unofficial
import activities resulting from the introduction of a liberal economic policy.
The new valuation method, based essentially on transactional value, limits the challenging
power of this administration.
The additional period requested will thus be used to lay the foundations of and assimilate the
new valuation rules, namely:
- Amending the legislative and regulatory texts;
- training customs officials and auxiliaries;  andG/VAL/W/58/Add.3
Page 2
- introducing all the provisions needed to avoid a negative impact on the budget of the
State, in view of the still substantial contribution made by customs revenue
(generalized use of data processing and its mastery by the using services, collection
of reliable information on the various supply markets, etc.).
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