Customs procedures of the European Union: essence, typology and features of application

On the way to European integration, Ukraine is facing many tasks related to the fulfillment of obligations under the Association Agreement with the European Union. One of the key places in the list of such tasks is harmonization of domestic customs legislation in terms of customs procedures with the norms of the European Union. In the context of assistance in solving this problem the essence and structure of customs procedures under the legislation of the European Union were studied. It was established that all customs procedures of the European Union are divided into three groups: release for free circulation, special procedures, export. The following special customs procedures are distinguished: transit (covers external and internal transit), storage (includes customs warehouse and free zones), special use (provides for temporary purpose and end-use), processing (includes processing in the customs territory of the European Union and outside the customs territory of the European Union).

One of the most common customs procedures is the release for free circulation and export. The procedure of release for free circulation provides for: collection of duty; collection of other payments in individual cases according to the provisions of the relevant legislation, which obliges to pay them in such cases; application of trade policy instruments and prohibitions and restrictions, if they were not introduced in the previous stages; performance of other necessary formalities required when importing goods.

As for the export procedure, it stipulates the following: all goods leaving the customs territory of the European Union must be placed under the customs procedure of export (only goods placed under the customs procedure of processing or transit may be an exception); goods exported outside the customs territory of the European Union are not the subject to customs duties; goods placed in the export procedure remain under customs control until they are in the customs territory of the European Union in the same condition as they were at the time of acceptance of the customs declaration; if the goods remain in the customs territory of the European Union, the exporter must promptly notify the customs authority.