Poto from UNIAN
The document is designed to introduce the authorized economic operator institution similar to that operating in the European Union.
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed a bill to introduce the authorized economic operator (AEO) institution in Ukraine, which will allow Ukraine to bring its customs legislation closer to the standards of the European Union.
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The draft law to amend the Customs Code of Ukraine (on some issues of Chapter 5 of Section 4 of the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, on the other hand) was adopted on February 28 in the first reading by 234 MPs with the required minimum being 226 votes.
The document is designed to introduce the authorized economic operator institution similar to that operating in the European Union, an explanatory note to the bill said.
In addition, most of provisions to the bill concern changes to the current procedures for declaring goods. In particular, the draft law provides for the introduction of a short import declaration, which is used in the EU.
Ukraine's Finance Minister Oksana Markarova, presenting the bill, said that the relevant committee had already considered the document more than once, and its concept had been discussed for several years.
At the same time, the official added that the draft law would be prepared jointly with the relevant committee for the second reading.
According to Nina Yuzhanina, the chairperson of the parliament's tax and customs policy committee, the bill stipulates the creation of a limited number of authorized economic operators.
"We have now set the number of operators that, I hope, will be able to administer the newly established customs service," she said.
Yuzhanina added that the AEO status in the first three years would be granted only to enterprises that are both manufacturers, importing goods and those involved in exports.
At the same time, mediators, commission agents and others will not receive the said status, he said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman called infrastructure, a single digital space, customs policy and access of Ukrainian goods to the European market as the priorities of cooperation with the European Union.