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Government Approved Amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine for International Application of NCTS and Acceleration of Customs Clearance of Goods

On May 28, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the draft law of amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine necessary to ensure the international application of the NCTS and to expand the implementation of the EU customs legislation. This law will be submitted to the Parliament of Ukraine for consideration.

"The proposed changes to the Customs Code are extremely important for Ukrainian business, in particular, to speed up the passage of goods across the customs border and the customs clearance, which became particularly urgent during the war after February 24. In addition, such changes are necessary to ensure the international application of the NCTS and further harmonization of the Customs Code of Ukraine with the EU Customs Code", - said Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko.

Ukraine is finalizing the assessesment of the NCTS on compliance with the provisions of the Convention on Joint Transit Procedure. By the end of 2022, Ukraine should successfully pass the assessment mission and join the Convention on the Procedure of Joint Transit and the Convention on Facilitation of Formalities in Trade in Goods.

The adopted governmental decision defines the key objectives for further implementation of the EU customs legislation in Ukraine, namely:

  • possibility for Ukrainian enterprises to use transit declarations using the NCTS without the need to execute any additional transit documents within 36 countries, which will speed up the passage of goods across customs borders;
  • expansion of the range of businesses that will have access to customs simplifications similar to those in Europe:

- with financial strength requirements for businesses with AEO status (the highest degree of confidence),

- with the possibility of using a combination of simplifications without financial sustainability requirements for non-AEO and NCTS beneficiaries;

  • introduction of a European decision-making system for granting simplification authorizations and other decisions on the application of the enterprise (introduction of a "right to be heard" to reduce contentious issues);
  • introduction of a European model for provisional decisions on classification and country of origin (decisions on binding information);
  • introduction of the European practice of guaranteeing customs payments with the possibility of exemption from the guarantee for businesses that move any goods, not only goods according to a certain list (as an element of customs simplification);
  • laying the groundwork for building a partnership between customs and business that could expedite customs clearance.

The law was developed by the Ministry of Finance together with the State Customs Service with the support of the Office of Reforms under the Ministry of Finance and the EU4PFM program.