The international business community highly appreciates the dramatic change in customs policy which will be ushered in by the new Customs Code, and especially the reduction of customs authorities' powers, which was a big issue before, and the reduction of the number of documents required for customs clearance, reads a press release of the American Chamber of Commerce.
President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine Jorge Zukoski said this at the Special American Chamber of Commerce’s Customs Committee Meeting, which was attended by key representatives of the business community, as well as a number of state officials representing the State Customs Service of Ukraine.
"Productive long-term cooperation with Ukrainian lawmakers means that the new Customs Code is a major step forward for Ukraine in terms of the simplification of the procedures for customs registration of goods, via a reduction in the number of documents required for customs clearance," Zukoski said.
Ihor Dankov, the chairman of the committee for customs policy at the chamber, and principal specialist at PwC, said that the customs authorities are no longer empowered to issue normative acts.
"They can only issue orders of an organizational nature. The Ministry of Finance will adopt customs normative acts, including those required for the implementation of the Customs Code. However, it is likely that the Ministry of Finance will be coordinating these acts with the Customs Service," he said.
The experts of the American Chamber of Commerce named the following changes within the Code as the most important for business: customs clearance became possible at any customs office, regardless of the importer’s place of registration; there is now the possibility to amend customs declarations within three years after customs clearance; goods can be re-exported by non-residents if there is a failure to fulfill contractual commitment, and customs duty will be reimbursed.
In addition, other positive points of the code are a partial exemption from customs duty (in addition to VAT) in the case of the temporary importing of goods that do not qualify under the Annexes to the Convention on Temporary Import (Istanbul, 1990); a time limit for customs clearance procedures (no more than four hours); the introduction of the "Authorized Economic Operator" concept; and improved customs procedures (especially with regard to re-export, re-import, processing, etc.) which provide wider opportunities for doing business.
According to the code, the customs treatment of royalties remains unclear until a relevant procedure is approved by the government.That being said, the international investors’ community understands that certain provisions of the code are still not in line with the WTO practice, and the customs valuation is a good example of that.
The American Chamber of Commerce has already submitted proposals to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych regarding engaging international experts in the activities of the working group on improving the Customs Code.
The Customs Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce will soon focus its attention on the following issues: customs declarations – e-declaration procedures; the use of provisional, temporary and additional declarations; and the procedure for amending customs declarations.
The experts said that WTO standards would be followed in cases where the customs authorities have reason to doubt the truth or accuracy of the declared value, and procedure for adjusting the declared value by the customs authorities is improved. Specifically, they have the right to do this only after a dialogue with the person declaring the good, and only after providing grounds why the value is not acceptable.
The chamber said that a procedure of consultation with the customs regarding the method of customs valuation and public access to the customs value database maintained by the customs authorities (subject to confidentiality requirement) is important for business.Further alignment of the Customs Code with the Tax Code of Ukraine and other legislative acts still has to be performed: the VAT provisions of the Tax Code have to be aligned with VAT implications of various customs regimes (procedures) under the new Customs Code; and currency control regulations (the 180-day rule) have to be abolished, as they are an obstacle to doing business and applying certain customs procedures, the chamber
