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12.12.2016

Eurasian Economic Union Customs Code to minimize customs clearance of transit goods

MINSK (BelTA) – Once the Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union is adopted, the time required to clear a batch of merchandise for transit will be reduced by six times. Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus Yuri Senko made the statement after the government conference held by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on 9 December to discuss the draft agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union's Customs Code, BelTA has learned.

According to the head of the Belarusian customs service, the document will contain norms meant to greatly increase transit appeal. “We would like to reduce the customs clearance of transit goods by several times. The extreme required time will be reduced from 24 hours to four hours. The extreme time required for customs control operations if those are necessary will be halved from ten days to five days. This is why transit cargoes will definitely see some benefits,” said the official.

Yuri Senko also explained that regulations are about to emerge to allow customs officers to fully switch to digital documents while the current Customs Code allows using both paper documents and digital ones. “The new Customs Code will virtually rule out the use of paper documents. Once a customs body receives a digital declaration and sees some references to authorization documents inside, the customs body will contact ministries and government agencies on its own in addition to verifying permits and licenses,” noted the head of Belarus' Customs.

Thus, commercial entities will no longer have to bring paper documents to customs bodies. Time will be saved. Contacts between customs personnel and representatives of the private sector will be ruled out, thus eliminating corruption risks.