Who is to win with the new Customs Code

New Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) was expected to come into effect in July but with the delay in the development of required regulatory documents the deadline was postponed till January 1, 2018. Russian participants of foreign economic activities are concerned about two issues: will the Customs Code come into force since the Law on customs regulation has not been passed in Russia yet and what is going o change from January 1. 

It should be noted that the new document does not drastically change the customs procedures or the activities of customs officers.

One of the key results should be the facilitation of customs work due to application of information technologies.  The code provides a platform for a full-scale introduction of automatic registration and issue of e-declarations.

With e-document management the customs will get confirming documents from information systems of other state bodies with the declarant’s participation not needed for the process. 

The new Code also provides for reduction of time needed for customs clearance. 

More transparency is also expected in regulation of activities within special economic zones. A special Chapter of the Code is dedicated to it.

The Customs Code is a detailed document covering all the aspects of customs procedures.

The Customs Code now describes the procedure for determining customs value.

The lawmakers have considerably improved the institution of Authorised Economic Operator.

New Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union also foresees grace periods for determining customs value and customs paymens.

Most of participants of foreign economic activities think that the EAEU Customs Code contains a large amount of references to customs regulations of the EAEU and national legislation of the EAEU member states. As for norms, experts see no changes for the worse. Yet, there is no reason to believe that the new document will bring a wind of change to the customs sphere of our country.  

Pavel Dukhnitsky, educational center Compas VED

Roman Gordienok, Importo Group 

The editorial opinion can differ from that of the author.