The 2020 survey findings show that businesses are encouraged by the customs reforms, and the rating of customs performance from the point of view of businesses has improved: the value of the Customs Performance Perception Index reached 0.43 on a scale from -1 to 1. It is the highest result over the observation period.
Customs performance assessments are the best of all the 5 waves of this monitoring. The share of businesses that do not see any problems in the customs performance reached the maximum value for all the waves of this survey and amounted to 23%, which is twice as much as in 2016. However, most respondents believe that customs still requires some changes. Inadequate customs legislation and, according to businesses, a deliberate overestimation of the customs value of goods at the customs are among the key issues.
The average cost of one export operation is UAH 4,186, which is twice less than for one import operation, where the average cost of one operation is UAH 8,429. Also, customs clearance for exporting companies is on average twice as fast as for importing companies. In general, exporters' rating of the customs sector is more positive than the one by importers.
More than one third of the respondents believe that customs reform is moving in the right direction, and only one respondent out of ten thinks that the direction of the reform is wrong. The most expected outcomes of the reform include the reduction of time of customs procedures and measures that will facilitate this (automation of procedures, human factor minimization, e-submission of all documents), as well as personal liability of customs officers for damage. Strengthening the fight against smuggling and the security functions of the customs are also among the main expectations.
The study was conducted by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting as a part of the implementation of the Project “Support of the Civil Society Initiative “For Fair and Transparent Customs”, funded by the European Union, the Renaissance Foundation and the Atlas Network.
Short report "Trade Facilitation in Ukraine: Customs Reform through the Eyes of Businesses" (download)
Presentation slides (download)