Third annual forum “Global Trade & Ukrainian Customs”

On December 14, 2017, in Kiev under the framework of support of Ukrainian Exporters/Importers in the IQ Business Center the third annual forum “Global Trade & Ukrainian Customs” has taken place. The event has been organized by state-owned enterprise DZI (Derzhzovnishinform) together with «Crow Horwath AC Ukraine» and in partnership with “KM Partners” as well as with «KFundMedia».

The opening words have been delivered by Oleg Kapshtyk, Head of the Division of Communications and Development of SE DZI. “Restructuring of the Customs is only possible by establishing an open dialog between the Government and the Business, between the Customs officials and Export/Import operators”, noted Oleg Kapshtyk.

The first session of the forum was dedicated to the evaluation of current problems facing the Ukrainian exporters and the potential markets for Ukrainian produce. First to deliver the speech was Aleksiy Rozhkov, Director of the Department for Trade, Economic Relations and European Integration of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, touching the progress of free trade zones and amendments to established preferential trade deals. “The implementation of the free trade zone with the EU is the priority number one in the activities of the Government till the year 2020”, Aleksey Rozhkov declared.

A substantial speech was delivered by Olga Shevchenko, Head of International Relations Department of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, stopping on issues related to phytosanitary measures and their impact on acting international agreements related to global trade.

The new dimensions of free trade, as Ukraine joined the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention, were highlighted by Eduard Zlideniy, Co-Head of the Work Group on International Trade of the American Chamber of Commerce.

The session was ended by the insights of Irina Mihaleva, Partner of Export Growth, on how to use the innovative model “Digital–export”.

In the beginning of the second session the floor was given to Sergii Svystil, Vice President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and he in detail has told how to mitigate risks and avoid losses in export-import transactions and gave practical advice on ways to insure cargos. “Incorrect interpretation of seaport and trade customs leads entities to incur losses and face uncovered risks”, declared the speaker.

German Taslitskiy, Executive Partner of the Legal Firm “Pravozahist”, shared the information as to the legal governance and execution of export/import contracts; pointed out the sources of national and international law; gave examples of how international conventions can be used and disclosed templates of buy-sell contracts of the ICC.

Anna Antonenko, Head of International Trade and Investment of Legal Firm Jurimex, went into great detail as to how to choose the correct jurisdiction of the contract for foreign economic relations, what side effects can arise from such a decision and how to avoid them, when is the best timing to use the International convention of arbitration and what are the special aspects of disputes being solved in arbitration courts.

The second session was rounded up by Olga Kostishina, the Adviser to the Head of the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, focusing on practical aspect in foreign trade disputes between the parties. “Taking into account the view of various applicants we can unconditionally state that the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce is one of the most efficient and low-cost instruments to solve disputes compared to other courts”, stressed Olga Kostishina.

The main subject of the third session was the pragmatics of customs clearance and goods declaration. Hanna Hablo, Leading State Inspector of the Department Managing Customs Payments of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine (SFSU), delivered the report on customs value determination, its monitoring, and inspection. On the matters related to the customs control of intellectual property spoke Aleksey Gashitskiy, Leading State Inspector of the Department of Customs Clearance and Inspection of the SFSU. Alexander lazarev, the CEO of LAMARIN LLC, thoroughly discussed the problems related to clearance of the goods under different customs regimes.

In the end of the session Tatiana Ostrikova, Member of Parliament of Ukraine (Verhovna Rada) and Member of the Committee on Fiscal and Customs Policy of the Verhovna Rada, addressed the audience with comments as to the results of customs efforts to stop the offense of laws and regulations. She has pointed out that at present in the customs authorities there is a fundamental flaw as well as in the Customs Code of Ukraine there is no definition of “customs authority” but instead there is the definition of  the “authority of revenue and payments” that often leads to a misconception in the courts. Furthermore, she has informed about her legislative initiative to change the “authority of revenue and payments” to the “customs authority” that will eventually move the customs audit to the customs authority from the tax authority.

The last session of the event was devoted to tax and currency restrictions along with financing possibilities. Ivan Shinkorenko, Ph.d, Partner of KM Partners, explained the difference of applying rules of Transfer pricing to the customs price evaluation, in particular he noted: “It is wise not to hurry in making the decision to use Transfer prices for customs purposes and when analyzing the transfer prices take into account not only the tax on profit but consider risks of customs clearance.”

Eugene Kodis, Chief of the Department of Customs Audit of the Division of Financial Control of Operations in the Foreign Economic Relations of the Kiev city branch of SFSU, and Svetlana Nosenko, Head of the Division of Financial Control of Operations in the Foreign Economic Relations of the Kiev city branch of SFSU, have delivered the understanding of the developments in the post-customs audit and the penalties for not complying to the terms of return of cash or goods in export/import operations.