More than half of importers report difficulties during decision-making on the customs value of the goods. The overestimation of customs value, the requirement to provide many additional documents and different approach to the same legislation or goods are common difficulties for different customs procedures.
Almost 2/3 of exporters did not face cargo delays during customs control compared to less than half of importers. The main reason for such delays in exports and imports are queues at the border.
The success of business appeals against customs actions is improving. The share of companies with fully or partially successful appeal experience is the largest in the 4 waves of the survey since 2016. The awareness about the appeal procedure remains low: only half of the respondents are familiar with it. Only one in five respondents has the experience of appealing. What is most needed is to improve the validity of decisions and ensuring impartial, complete and fair complaint consideration.
More than 2/3 of respondents do not know what the AEO status is. The idea of joint customs control with neighbouring countries has significant business support, especially at customs where there are long queues.
The share of businesses that submit documents while carrying out foreign trade in electronic form amounted to more than 80% in 2020. It has hardly changed since 2016 — the process of automatic performance at customs is not increasing. Payment orders for payment of duties are most frequently submitted only in electronic form.
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 Procedures, One-stop Window and Electronic Document Management" (download)
Presentation slides (download)