Final EU Assessment Mission on Ukraine's Readiness to Participate in International Application of NCTS and to Implement International Customs Conventions Began Its Work

On June 23, the final assessment mission of the Directorate General of Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission (DG TAXUD) started its work. The main task is to assess Ukraine's readiness to join the Convention on a Common Transit Procedure and the Convention on the Simplification of Formalities in Trade in Goods and to apply the NCTS* at the international level.

"The decision on the possibility of Ukraine's accession to international customs conventions will be made based on the results of the final EU assessment mission. Our task for two days is to demonstrate our readiness for the international application of procedures for joint transit and NCTS. This will provide an indisputable advantage for business to develop foreign economic activity and provide the opportunity to exchange customs information with 35 countries in Europe,"- said Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine on European integration Yuriy Draganchuk.

As of June 2022, the necessary technical functionality provided by the common transit regime has been deployed in Ukraine and the staff has been trained. The system has already registered more than 1100 traders, about 4.5 thousand customs employees, and more than 5000 declarations have been filed. Already more than 1 year the Support Service for NCTS has been working, 13 companies have been granted the status of a financial guarantor, and the provision of special transit facilitation for Ukrainian enterprises has been started.

The mission will take place in online format on June 23 and 24, 2022. During two days DG TAXUD experts plan to evaluate the progress of Ukraine achieved since the preliminary assessment mission in November 2021 and analyze the implementation of the recommendations provided earlier on the application of general transit.

The evaluation will be conducted on the key areas of NCTS operation and the regime of common transit. Ukraine should demonstrate how the common transit regime is applied legislatively and organizationally at the national level in Ukraine.

Specifically, the Ukrainian side will present the following:

1) The application of NCTS by the customs of departure, destination, and transit customs (after accession to the Convention);

2) The composition and organization of the national team involved in the implementation of the project;

3) The interaction processes on common transit issues at different levels;

4) The work of the joint transit support service;

5) The procedure for issuing financial guarantees by financial institutions and application of such guarantees by traders.

Also during the mission, an IT security plan for the operation of NCTS in Ukraine will be presented, including new challenges caused by Russia's military aggression.

In addition, Ukraine seeks to show the achieved level of readiness for the international application of the procedure of joint transit and NCTS in the context of performance by customs authorities of Ukraine at the border with European countries of the functions of customs transit as an important intermediate link in the movement of goods between countries. One of the principal aspects of the assessment is the readiness to implement NCTS Phase 5 in Ukraine by the end of 2023.

*NCTS (New Computerized Transit System) is an IT product that allows the exchange of information about the stages of customs clearance of goods using electronic messages in real-time and increases the effectiveness of the risk analysis system. Ukraine started to apply NCTS in November 2020 - first in pilot mode, and since March 17, 2021, a stage of national application of NCTS has been started. To move to the international application of NCTS, Ukraine must join the Convention on a Common Transit Procedure.