Today, September 5, 2022, the Ukrainian delegation led by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal took part in the 8th plenary session of the Ukraine-EU Association Council in Brussels.

During the meeting, a historical decision for Ukraine about the possibility of joining international customs conventions from October 1 this year was announced, thanks to which "customs visa-free" will be launched.

"We welcome the invitation given to Ukraine to join the Common Transit Convention and Convention on the Simplification of Formalities in Trade in Goods. This was preceded by a purposeful customs policy and consolidated efforts of the government and businesses with the support of international partners to deploy the Electronic Transit System for the operation of the common transit regime (NCTS) in Ukraine at the local level. Simplifying the movement of goods between the 36 countries of the European region is extremely necessary right now to promote Ukrainian exports under the conditions of restrictions caused by the armed aggression of russia", said the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko in his speech.

An essential element of activity for customs integration with the EU was the preparation of the necessary legislative basis, the adoption of several necessary laws, and the introduction of the national application of the electronic transit system (NCTS) from March 17, 2021.

According to the results of the work in June this year of the final Evaluation Mission of the EU during which the experts studied the readiness of Ukraine to join the Common Transit Convention and Convention on the Simplification of Formalities in Trade in Goods, and application of the NCTS at the international level, the mission recognized Ukraine's achievement of the necessary progress and readiness to access the Conventions.

The recent introduction of relevant changes to the Customs Code of Ukraine, the adoption by the Parliament, and the signing by the President of Ukraine of the Laws of Ukraine on accession to the two mentioned Conventions allowed the Government of Ukraine to hand over to the Joint Administrative Committee of the Conventions the necessary instruments for the accession of our state to these multilateral international treaties on August 31.

"The international application of NCTS will become the main tool for the rapid passage of goods through customs, and with the accession to international customs conventions and the launch of relevant legislative changes, Ukraine will fulfill 81% of its obligations under the Association Agreement with the EU in the customs area. In general, we consider Ukraine's accession to the common transit system as an important step towards future full membership in the EU", the Minister of Finance of Ukraine said.

Also, today in Brussels, Minister Sergii Marchenko signed agreements on Ukraine's participation in the EU programs 'Customs' and 'Fiscalis'.

Additional information 

To date, the Common Transit Convention unites 35 Contracting Parties, which have introduced uniform rules for the declaration and control of transit movements of goods using a common IT product (NCTS). Signatory Convention countries: 27 EU countries, 4 EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) and 4 other countries (United Kingdom, Turkey, North Macedonia and Serbia).

NCTS provides an opportunity to establish an exchange of information at all stages of customs clearance of goods using electronic messages in real time and to increase the effectiveness of the use of the risk analysis mechanism.

Joining the Common Transit Convention and the use of the NCTS system will allow Ukraine to: introduce the exchange of customs information, move goods under a single customs declaration between participating countries, and introduce special transit simplifications.

Ukraine started applying NCTS in November 2020 – initially in pilot mode, and from March 17, 2021, the stage of national application of NCTS began.

On August 25, 2022, Ukraine was invited to join the Convention on the Simplification of Formalities in Trade in Goods.