Parliament’s committee approves draft legislation implementing authorized economic operators

The Parliament’s committee for tax and customs policy has approved and recommended for further processing the draft law on amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine on certain issues concerning the implementation of Chapter 5 of Title IV of the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one side, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, on the other side.

The draft law aims to implement authorized economic operators (AEO) in Ukraine in the way they operate in the EU. In addition, many provisions of this draft law amend the current customs clearance procedures. For instance, it stipulates the implementation of the short import declaration that is applied in the EU.

“The concept of the authorized economic operator poses a global practice in international trade that can make it possible to adjust the Ukrainian legislation to EU standards as well as reduce barriers for international trade and increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian exporters. Thus, Ukrainian companies will be able to become part of the global trade network,” said Deputy Minister of Finance Sergiy Verlanov.

The draft law determines which entities can obtain the AEO status. These can be companies involved in the international supply chain (manufacturers, exporters, importers, customs representatives, transporters, forwarders, owners of bonded warehouses).

It also sets criteria for obtaining the AEO status. All advantages available for the AEOs are divided into benefits and special simplified procedures. The list of special simplified procedures that can be granted to AEOs has been reduced from 7 to 4 positions (special simplified procedures “authorized freight consignee”, “authorized freight consignor” and “release from the mandatory fixed route set by the origin customs office” have been canceled). The special simplified procedure “general financial guarantee or release from the guarantee” has been replaced by the special simplified procedure “general financial guarantee”.

The draft law also specifies the rules of use for the special simplified procedure “local customs release” as well as some of the provisions related to the goods declaring procedure and application of the financial guarantee. The text of the draft law has been supplemented with a provision entitling customs authorities to extend the timeframes for goods processing upon request of companies involved in foreign trade based on the technical specifics of this processing (this prolongation can go beyond the terms set by the Customs Code of Ukraine).