Simplified customs declaration of goods and phytosanitary control

In view of ongoing hostilities in the territory of Ukraine, the state is taking several legislative measures aimed to simplify doing business in terms of reducing state control.

In particular, in April the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine significantly simplified the procedure for customs clearance of a wide range of imported goods. Exceptions not affected by such changes were mainly alcoholic and tobacco products.

Now the importer has an option of simplified customs declaration of imported goods. In practice, it implies exemption from all customs duties and customs clearance of goods based on the preliminary customs declaration.

However, in order to be able to use such a simplified method, business representatives should submit a special application to the State Customs Service.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has also simplified the procedure for carrying out phytosanitary control, being mandatory in the process of importing agricultural products into the customs territory of Ukraine.

For a wide range of plant products, the obligation to conduct phytosanitary expertise in the process of importing goods into the territory of Ukraine has been canceled, case when the phytosanitary certificate has already been obtained in the country of origin. Now, the State Consumer Service inspector should conduct only a general inspection of the imported goods and may submit the goods for expertise only in case of detecting obvious signs of infection with quarantine organisms. This will significantly reduce time and cost of importing agricultural products into Ukraine.

However, in order to fully take advantage of the above benefits, business representatives should comply with the following recommendations:

1) Properly execute and submit an application to the State Customs Service;

2) Control over compliance by the State Customs Service and the State Consumer Service with new rules imposed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and prevent abuse by their representatives.

For their part, Interlegal lawyers are able to help importers in making relations with state regulatory authorities and secure maximum protection of business interests in the course of import operations.