The workshop, organized by the World Customs Organization (WCO) on Customs valuation for the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan, was an important step for its participants to familiarize themselves with the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement (CVA). 

Turkmenistan, which currently has an observer status, is working towards becoming a Member of the World Trade Organization and the implementation of the CVA.

The workshop, co-facilitated by a WCO-accredited Expert Trainer on Customs Valuation from Latvian Customs, was delivered online over five half days from 26 to 30 July 2021 with the support of the WCO Regional Office for Capacity Building of the Europe region. 

Twenty Customs officers from various operational structures of headquarters and regional Customs offices participated in the workshop which covered a range of topics including the background to the Agreement, the transaction value and other valuation methods, an overview of the WCO’s Revenue Package programme, relationship between Customs valuation and Transfer pricing and selected instruments of the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation as well as Advance Rulings for Customs valuation. The workshop also involved the examination, with the participants, of local case studies.

In his closing remarks, the representative of the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan highlighted the relevance and timeliness of this workshop with its modernization programme and its international engagement and expressed the wish to expand the scope of its cooperation with the WCO Secretariat.