The problem of customs administration of express cargo was discussed at NCE
A start has been given to a comprehensive effort to improve customs administration in the Member States of EAEU
The problem of customs administration express cargo has been around for many years, and due to the rapid growth of e-commerce, it became even more acute. At the same time, this issue is relevant not only in the Member States of EAEU, but also in the international arena.
In this connection, in the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Facilitation (Bali Agreement), this subject is given a special place (Article 7, paragraph 8 "Accelerated Delivery"). Because 4-EAEU Member States (the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation) are members of the WTO, the provisions of the agreement should be implemented into the customs legislation of the Customs Union.
In these circumstances, the Commission, together with Member States, the EAEU initiated comprehensive work in this direction, including both short-medium and long term actions.
In Astana was held the first expert meeting devoted to the issue of improving the procedure of customs operations in respect of express cargo. The event was held at the site of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan "Atameken", since this issue was originally raised by Kazakh business community in the preparation of the draft Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Community (CC of EAEU). The meeting was attended by over 50 experts, including representatives of government agencies, business associations, designated postal operators, express carriers, the national rail carriers, etc. The main result of the first full-scale expert meeting was the recognition by all participants of this discussion of the existence of such a phenomena as rapid transportation and the need for its adequate customs regulation.
The presence of legal gap, it was noted during the meeting, leads to differences in legal practice in the commission of customs operations in respect of express goods, difficulties in differentiating this category of goods, delays in customs clearance of express cargo and, therefore, hinders the development of the whole industry.
All this leads to the need for targeted regulation of the matter in the Member States of EAEU, including by conducting experiments and pilot projects, which, although remove certain contradictions, but does not completely solve the problem. Therefore, the experts discussed the alleged steps to ensure unambiguous customs regulation of this market segment. In general, the experts agreed on the need to include a number of provisions directly into the draft Customs Code of EAEU. At the same time, the participants recognized that the conditions for the inclusion of a separate chapter on express cargo, are not yet available due to the need of its study, including within the Member States of EAEU. However, this does not prevent the development of proposals for the inclusion of targeted standards in the draft Customs Code of EAEU to ensure the settlement of the most acute situations (simplified customs declaration of express goods, the provision of certain simplifications for express carriers, which are authorized economic operators).
Moreover, experts have managed to develop an approach for the improvement of customs operations in respect of express freight under the current customs legislation of EAEU by amending the decision of the Commission of the Customs Union.
All participants of the meeting agreed on the relevance of the expert work in the direction of improving the customs administration, express freight and pair it with a similar activity with international mail, taking into account the similarity of their nature.
Work on these two critical areas gives a solid basis for the creation in the Member States of EAEU of favorable conditions for the development of e-commerce and its proper customs regulation.
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