In 2020, respondents were less likely to name corruption and bribery among the problems at the customs than in previous waves of this survey. Although the share of the respondents who report corruption is declining, the perception of corruption as a problem is related to the assessment of customs: respondents who point out the problem of corruption and those who assess the level of corruption as higher, make worse assessments of the work of the customs.
According to the respondents, the average share of “gray imports” in the market is 24.2% in 2020. It has hardly changed since 2018, when this share was estimated at an average of 25.3%. At the same time, in 2020, 72% of enterprises were able to assess the level of “gray imports” in their market. This is more than in 2018, when only a little more than half of the respondents were able to make such an assessment.
More than ¾ respondents support the criminalization of smuggling of commercial goods. However, they mostly suggest the introduction of criminal liability without imprisonment: this option is supported by twice as many respondents (53.2%) than criminal liability with imprisonment (26.2%). Only 15% of respondents oppose the criminalization of smuggling.
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)