This is what The Day found out from an anonymous source on October 11, during the European Forum in Kyiv, which gathered heads of customs services of the EU members, enlargement and neighboring countries. One of the high negotiators explained that the progress in this process is possible due to successful reforms of Ukrainian customs.
Chairman of the State Customs Service of Ukraine Ihor Kaletnyk confirmed during the press conference that Ukraine and the EU continue the dialog about the creation of the single tariff information exchange in order to simplify customs procedures for honest entities engaged in foreign economic activities and minimize violations at the border. However, he did not specify the details of agreements.
Technical barriers still hinder compromising in this question, Director General of the Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union Heinz Zourek explained during the press conference.
According to the interviewee of The Day, 15 countries gave their preliminary agreement to participate in the creation of the new tariff exchange mechanism. According to this source, Ukraine and the EU held the first meeting of the project group on September 14, 2012 and the next meeting is due within next two months. The new mechanism will be tested at customs stations in Moldova as it already has such tariff information exchange with Ukraine. It means that representatives of customs services of interested EU members will come to those stations and watch this mechanism working. The deadline for the creation of this mechanism has not been set yet. As the interlocutor of our edition explained, the mechanism will be based on the principle of effective risk management and customs procedures simplification.
Providing the legislative framework of the tariff exchange information between Ukraine and the EU members is possible in two ways. The first one provides for signing a convention with interested countries, and the second one – for signing a separate protocol for current customs documents with the EU.
According to Kaletnyk, goods turnover between Ukraine and the EU is constantly growing. In 2012 it has been over 30 billion US dollars (over 23 billion euros). “European countries have invested into the Ukrainian economy over 41 billion dollars. The progress of integration process, in particular, signing the agreement about the free trade with the EU must contribute into the growth of goods turnover and investment attraction of Ukraine since it is a possibility to relieve tariff and nontariff of economic regulation,” the head of customs department emphasized.
The process of Europe’s consolidation started with the unification of customs rules and standards. Today the Customs Union of Ukraine is being dynamically reformed according to the international, in particular, European norms and standards. The adoption of the new Customs Code became the key factor of the modernization of the customs system.
