Ukraine has completed the last stage of testing - the international testing of the NCTS national application, and thus is technically fully ready to join the European Convention on the common transit procedure.

Such a conclusion was reached by the participants of the meeting regarding the completion of international testing, which took place on June 8, 2022. The meeting was attended by representatives of the State Customs Service, the General Directorate for Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission (DG TAXUD) and the customs administrations of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Romania, who helped Ukraine test the NCTS national application. Additionally, the completion of international compliance testing for Ukraine was confirmed on 9 June 2022 at the monthly progress meeting for NCTS deployment in Ukraine with DG TAXUD. During this entire process, EU4PFM's expert, technical and financial assistance was important for us. This was informed by Serhii Demchenko, director of the Department of Implementation of the International Transit System of the State Customs Service.

"This is an extremely important result for Ukraine. The European side attaches fundamental importance to testing before joining the international transit system, as the Convention unites 36 countries. We say: if a problem arises in one country, it becomes a problem for all other countries. Therefore, the purpose of the tests is to make sure that Ukraine can interact with other domains, that the Ukrainian system covers all transit scenarios and that the system works in the same way in all countries," said Vytianis Alishauskas, EU4PFM's international customs expert.

In general, the process of testing the operation of the Ukrainian NCTS system for compliance with the requirements of DG TAXUD - the so-called "Conformance Testings" - has been from September 2021. Initially, the system was tested internally by the State Customs Service for compliance with the requirements established by the relevant NCTS technical specifications. At the second stage, the correct sequence of message exchange was checked in accordance with the established scenarios using a special application of DG TAXUD. At the third stage, which took place in May 2022, Ukraine confirmed the compliance of the system's functionality by simulating various possible situations during the real international application of the NCTS national application. Successful completion of Conformance Testing is a necessary condition for Ukraine to receive an official invitation to join the Convention.

The next step in the advancement of Ukraine to the accession to the Convention on the common transit procedure should be the evaluation mission of DG TAXUD. As you know, the previous assessment mission took place in November 2021.

"On the eve of the assessment mission, Ukraine has one more assignment - Ukrainian enterprises must conduct a test of the operation of transit simplifications. For this, they must obtain permits for transit simplifications and start their applications", - emphasized Alina Brendak, national coordinator for joint transit, deputy director of the department - head of the international transit system development department of the Department for the Implementation of the International Transit System of the State Customs Service.

As already reported, in September 2021 in Ukraine, the formation of the legal framework necessary for the introduction of all the functionality provided for by the common transit regime, as well as the creation of technical capabilities for its application, and the training of personnel was completed. Currently, the stage of national application of NCTS is going in Ukraine. The international application of the joint transit regime is expected to begin as early as 2022.

 Reference source: the State Customs Service of Ukraine