Today, on 17 October, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the Law ‘On Amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine on the Implementation of Certain Provisions of the Customs Code of the European Union’ No. 3926-IX.
This was reported by the State Customs Service and MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
The adopted amendments bring Ukraine closer to the full application of the EU customs legislation and effectively complete the implementation of the main part of the EU customs law (EU acquis) into Ukrainian law. The next major changes to the customs legislation of Ukraine will be the adoption of the new Customs Code of Ukraine, which will be fully based on the EU Customs Code.
The changes will allow domestic businesses to adapt to the updated rules in the field of foreign economic activity and make a ‘soft’ transition from the current to the new Customs Code of Ukraine.
What changes are expected:
- Introduction of the concept of customs representation, similar to that used in the EU, with a division of types of representation into direct and indirect, and a separation of duties and responsibilities of a foreign economic operator and its customs representative;
- gradual transition of enterprises engaged in foreign economic activity to an authorisation system similar to the one in place in the EU within 18 months. This means the introduction of a unified system of criteria and conditions for all customs authorisations for customs brokers, holders of customs warehouses, temporary storage warehouses and others;
- bringing the provisions of the Customs Code of Ukraine on delivery, presentation of goods and their storage under customs control in line with EU regulations;
- cancelling the need to call a customs officer to move goods between company facilities for which different authorisations have been obtained (for example, between a customs warehouse and an authorised shipper or consignee within the same company territory);
- improving the provisions on facilitating the protection of intellectual property rights during the movement of goods across the customs border of Ukraine, etc.
In addition, in order to combat corruption in the customs authorities, impersonal texts of decisions on the results of consideration of complaints will be published on the official website of the State Customs Service within three days from the date of their adoption. The law also introduces the right of customs authorities to exchange information on the customs value of goods in electronic form with the customs authorities of foreign countries.
According to Zheleznyak, the changes also include a reboot of the customs office based on the BES model, a transparent competition for the head of the State Customs Service, re-certification of all employees, and an increase in salaries at the level of the law. He also said that the law will come into force on 1 November.