EU sees no significant progress in Ukraine's customs reform – expert

The European Union sees no significant progress in Ukraine's customs reform, according to an EU expert.

"One of the main clauses of the Association Agreement with the EU is the issue related to the customs, and unfortunately, we have not seen significant progress in recent years in that direction," Jocelyn Guitton, the First Secretary of the Trade and Economic Section of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, has said at an economic forum.

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At the same time, the official noted certain progress in other related directions, in particular, there is some progress in respect of the Regional Convention on pan-European Convention rules of origin of goods and in the implementation of a single-window system. The latter is a trade facilitation tool that enables international (cross-border) traders to submit regulatory documents at a single location and/or single entity.

"But we still hope to see progress in such important areas as the creation of a single economic operator, the introduction of a common transit system," he said.

In his view, it is necessary to deepen cooperation between the Ministry of Finance, the State Fiscal Service (SFS) of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada's respective committee to fulfill the obligations to reform customs and tax policy.

As UNIAN reported, the Cabinet of Ministers on January 11, 2018, canceled a resolution approving the concept of reforming the system of state tax and customs policy agencies and reorganizing the territorial SFS agencies, adopted by the government on March 29 and July 19 last year.

Commenting on the decision, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman called the concept "pointless." "That concept was absolutely pointless. It in no way influences the positive changes in the SFS. I'm happy with the SFS head," Groysman said in January.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk expressed concern about the Cabinet's decision to cancel the previously approved concept of the SFS reform and was going to "fix the mistake."