Government Approved Amendments to the Customs Tariff of Ukraine on Unification of Import Duty Rates

On October 6, 2021, the Government approved the draft Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Customs Tariff of Ukraine regarding the unification of import duty rates on certain goods" prepared by the Ministry of Finance together with the Customs Service in coordination with the Ministry of Economy.

A significant differentiation of import duty rates set by the Customs Tariff of Ukraine on similar goods prompts certain participants of foreign economic activity to manipulate descriptions and names of goods and to declare them under codes according to Ukrainian classification of foreign economic activity goods for which lower preferential import duty rates are set. This leads to the need to confirm the declared code, conduct additional laboratory tests, and increase the time of customs clearance.

The law proposes to unify (review) the import duty rates taking into account the related WTO rates for 92 goods, classified according to their chemical composition, degree of processing, technical characteristics, etc., and which can not be accurately identified at the time of customs clearance without additional laboratory research.

As a result of unification, import duty rates for some goods will slightly increase, while for others it will decrease. It is also proposed to increase the level of full import duty rates to the level of new unified preferential import duty rates.

Such changes to the Customs Tariff will simplify classification procedures and speed up customs clearance of homogeneous goods.

The Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Customs Tariff of Ukraine regarding the unification of import duty rates on certain goods," which was approved by the Government, will soon be sent to the Parliament for consideration.