Customs Visa-Free Regime: Decision Taken on Ukraine's Accession to the Convention on the Common Transit Procedure and the Convention on the Simplification of Formalities in Trade in Goods

Today, on July 7, 2022, it was decided to invite Ukraine to the Convention on the Common Transit Procedure (NCTS) and the Convention on the Simplification of Formalities in Trade in Goods.

"Despite martial law, the Ministry of Finance continues to implement customs reform. Our goal is to make Ukrainian customs as convenient as possible for our business. And NCTS will allow us to do this by speeding up the passage of goods across the border. Customs visa-free regime of goods is the ability to move goods quickly between 36 countries of the European region. At the same time, joining the Convention on the Common Transit Procedure is an important step toward Ukraine's future EU membership", - Sergii Marchenko, the Minister of Finance of Ukraine said.

The decision was taken at the meeting of the working group on the relevant conventions after consideration of the conclusions of the final evaluation mission of the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission (DG TAXUD) which took place on June 23-24, 2022.

After Ukraine accedes to the Convention on the Common Transit Procedure (NCTS), Ukrainian businesses will be able to follow the benefits and simplifications:

• One transit declaration and one guarantee for the movement of goods between 36 countries (EU countries and the UK, Turkey, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland);
• Authorized enterprises can send and receive goods at their company without entering the customs terminals;
• Ukrainian financial guarantees will be valid in 35 more countries.

It is expected that Ukraine will be able to start the international application of NCTS by the end of 2022. This should be preceded by the adoption by the Parliament of Ukraine of draft law No. 7420 and laws on accession to the two conventions, and the implementation of all relevant international procedures.

"Ukrainian enterprises will soon be able to use all the benefits and simplifications used by the business of the member countries of the Convention. Joining the NCTS is an important element of customs integration with the EU. It was preceded by a lot of work, in particular, in numerous negotiations on several tactical-strategic issues of implementation of the Convention provisions and deployment of appropriate IT tools, development of the legislative framework, launch of technological support, and training of specialists, gradual involvement of business in new practices. Customs Visa-Free is also an impetus for the development of logistics, commercial and trade hubs in Ukraine", - said Deputy Minister of Finance for European integration Yuriy Draganchuk.

The prospect of joining the Conventions is the result of coordinated work of specialists of the Ministry of Finance, State Customs Service of Ukraine, National Bank of Ukraine, Office of the Ministry of Finance Reforms Support, and specialists of the EU4PFM program.

The transit simplifications at the national level have been applied in Ukraine since March of last year.