The decision was taken on April 17 at the Steering Committee meeting with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the State Customs Service of Ukraine, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD), the EU Delegation to Ukraine, as well as other international experts and representatives of the business community.
According to the State Customs Service of Ukraine, more than 100 experts were involved in the work on the project. The procedure for its approval by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and subsequent submission to parliament has been launched.
Basis for EU integration
Chairman of the State Customs Service of Ukraine (SCSU) Orest Mandziy thanked the developers of the draft for a fundamental step in the process of implementation of the European customs legislation: “The draft of this codified act combines the provisions of the EU Customs Code and relevant regulations with national peculiarities of legal regulation, in particular, in the field of combating smuggling and violation of customs rules. This is an important basis for further integration of Ukraine into the common European economic and customs space”.
Sergiy Zvyagintsev, Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Service of Ukraine and the main coordinator of the drafting of the new TCU from the agency emphasized the scale of the work done: “Now a new history of the customs service is being written. In fact, a new basis for the functioning of the customs system has been created. At the same time, there is still more work to be done to prepare the bylaws, which will detail all the processes, algorithms and procedures for the implementation of the Code, the volume of which will be many times greater than the Code itself”.
Taking into account the interests of business
As part of the preparation of the draft, large-scale consultations with the business community have taken place over the past six months. Representatives of 15 business associations have held more than 60 meetings of the working group, which resulted in a significantly improved and balanced document.
“The open process of consultations with business is an unprecedented case in the history of Ukraine, when such full-scale consultations on a codified act were held before its submission to the Cabinet and Parliament, and not afterwards. As representatives of business, we checked how certain provisions are applied in practice in EU countries and had an opportunity to try on these norms on our own business models in various sectors of the economy”, – emphasized Tetyana Ostrikova-Chmeruk, the head of the working group for consultations on the text of the draft of the new TCU.
In addition, a series of working meetings with European customs law experts were held in February and March to consult on the implementation of the results of the assessment of the draft TCU received from the European Commission.
Tomasz Michalek, representative of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD), confirmed that the finalized draft TCU complies with the EU legislation, noting as a “European standard” the fact of extensive consultations with the business community.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is expected to consider and adopt the draft in two readings by September 1, 2026. The new Customs Code is scheduled to enter into force on December 1, 2027.
