EBA notes increase in cases of delays in customs clearance

The European Business Association (EBA) notes an increase in cases of delays in customs clearance, due to which the association appealed to head of the State Customs Office Pavlo Riabikin with a request to adjust the settings in the risk system for selective control.

"Recently, there have been frequent requests from EBA member companies regarding delays in the customs clearance due to the inclusion of certain goods in the ASAUR automated risk analysis and management system. These goods fall under control provided by the sectoral plan of state market surveillance for 2021. Currently, the risk system reacts in such a way that all goods included in the Sectoral Customs Plan are subject to the inspection, for example, clothing, footwear, spare vehicle parts, household appliances, etc," the release of the association reported on Tuesday, February 9.

As EBA said, during customs clearance, the presence of marking on the goods, provided for by the technical regulations, is checked.

"The problem is that customs officers do not have the technical ability to complete customs formalities without entering a photo of the appropriate markings (eg, shamrock, and other icons) of each unit of goods. If it is a batch of shoes, then it is necessary to inspect and photograph each pair of shoes in the opinion of customs officers. Photos from the catalogs, unfortunately, are not taken into account and no selective control is carried out," the association said.

Therefore, this control procedure requires unloading vehicles to photograph all marking icons which may take up no less than one working day which in turn leads to downtime of transport of both foreign and Ukrainian carriers. Besides, the trucks are forced to arrive at the customs terminal as it is necessary to order and pay for additional services of unloading and loading goods for photography.

"This situation delays the customs clearance of goods, even if companies have a positive reputation for clearance of similar goods for decades," EBA said.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua