Verkhovna Rada Adopts a Draft Law on Common Transit Regime

The Ministry of Finance welcomes the decision of the Verkhovna Rada to support as a whole Draft Law No. 1082 "On the regime of joint transit and introduction of national electronic transit system", which was developed for the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and is the subject of our commitments under the macro-financial assistance program of the EU. 

The draft law introduces in Ukrainian law the provisions of the Convention on a Common Transit Procedure, which currently brings together 35 countries in the European region (EU, EFTA, Turkey, Macedonia and Serbia), which have introduced rules for the declaration and control of transit using a joint IT product for all Contracting Parties (New Computerized Transit System, NCTS).

Accession to the Convention and use of the NCTS system will enable Ukraine to: 

(1) Introduce real time exchange of customs information with 35 countries; 

(2) Receive information for the transit of goods and final customs information from various sources (from carriers and importers/exporters); 

(3) Use a single customs declaration for the movement of goods from the country of departure to the country of destination through third countries within the limits of the Contracting Parties to the Convention under uniform rules;

(4) Introduce special transit simplifications;

(5) Introduce a simple and level playing field for financial guarantors;

(6) Introduce a new product in the financial services market - a general financial guarantee.

The adoption of the law will allow Ukraine to apply European transit rules, which will allow businesses to use a single customs declaration and a single guarantee for moving goods from their warehouse to that of their counterparty. This will result in significant acceleration and reduction in the price of goods movement, which benefits all participants in the supply chain - exporters, carriers and importers. The Ukrainian customs, in turn, will receive from the customs of other countries preliminary information about the goods before they cross the Ukrainian border, which will allow analyzing transactions for their risk even before the goods arrive in Ukraine.