. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/VAL/W/73
24 August 2000
(00-3375)
Committee on Customs Valuation Original:  Spanish
COMMUNICATION FROM BOLIVIA CONCERNING ANNEX III, P ARAGRAPH 1
OF THE AGREEMENT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE VII OF
THE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE 1994
The following communication, dated 21 August 2000, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Bolivia.
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The Permanent Mission of Bolivia to the United Nations Office at Geneva has the honour to
notify that in order to ensure the application of th e Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994) the Government of Bolivia, resorting to
the special provisions relating to special and more favourable treatment for the developing countries,
wishes to avail itself of the possibility offered by Annex III, paragraph 1, for developing countryMembers which have invoked the five-year delay provided for in Article 20.1 to request an extension
of such period provided it does so within the time referred to therein.
Accordingly, the Government of Bolivia would like to ask this Committee for an extension of
the delay in the application of the Agreement on Customs Valuation for a period of two years
beginning on 13 September 2000.
At the same time, the Government of Bolivia would like to inform the Committee of the
action it has taken thus far to contribute to the implementation of the provisions of the Agreement:
- Creation of a Customs Valuation Department under the National Standards and
Customs Development Administration on 12 August 1999;
- conclusion of new contracts with inspection companies for a period of 12 months
with possibility of extension for six months, on 28 April 2000;
- approval of operating regulations for the inspection, verification and certification of
imports, on 10 April 2000;
- implementation of the Sworn Declaration of Value as from 1 January 2000.In spite of all these achievements, the national customs authorities still need time to carry out
the following actions:
- Develop an acceptable regulatory and procedural framework;- develop an educative and dynamic database which would be constantly updated and
which would form part of ASYCUDA;G/VAL/W/73
Page 2
- approval of the Regulations to the General Customs Law, still under review;
- training of officials in the National Tax Administration and in the regional
administrations.
The above reasons fully justify the Government of Bolivia's request.  We would therefore like
to thank the members of the Committee on Customs Valuation in advance for their willingness to
grant the requested extension.
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