With the beginning of the war and introduction of the martial law in Ukraine, import of goods became complicated due to many reasons, such as damaged transport infrastructure, or foreign currency payment restrictions. Still, as both industry and population of Ukraine rely on imported goods in many spheres, government makes efforts to ensure that these goods are still available in the country.

List of critical import goods

One of the main issues importers have faced starting from the first days of the war was the introduction of ban for transborder transactions in UAH/foreign currency, introduced by the Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine dated February 18, 2022 no. 18. Clause 14, introducing such ban, provides a list of exceptions from this ban, such as purchasing goods of critical import. In addition, in its Resolution no. 153 dated February 24, 2022 approving the list of critical import goods, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine recommends the National Bank of Ukraine to ensure transborder transactions for purchasing such goods.

While as of now, there is no clear definition of critical import, on March 16, 2022 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by its Resolution no. 289 has approved criteria for classifying certain good as critical import. The document sets sectoral criteria for energy sector, security and defense sector, ensuring living conditions for population (criteria for food and medicinal import) and ensuring work of manufacturing industry.

Despite of these criteria being in place, in practice in order to facilitate the transaction in question, it is required that the good is explicitly included in the list, which is constantly updated.

IMPORTANT! According to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated April 9, 2022 no. 426, importing any goods in custom regime “import” from Russian Federation on the customs territory of Ukraine is prohibited.

Introduction of duty-free regime for certain goods, imported in Ukraine

In order to simplify import of goods and decrease their price for consumers, the government has introduced the duty-free regime for them. Respective amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine were introduced by Law of Ukraine “On Amending Tax Code of Ukraine and Other Legislative Acts of Ukraine regarding Peculiarities of Taxation and Reporting under Martial Law” (Law no. 2118-IX dated March 3, 2022) and Law of Ukraine “On Amending Tax Code of Ukraine and Other Legislative Acts of Ukraine regarding Improvement of Legislation for the Period of Martial Law” (Law no. 2142-IX dated March 24, 2022).

In particular, following exemptions were introduced for the period when martial law is in place: 

• socially significant food products, medicines and medicinal products, prices for which regulated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (clause 5-2 of the final and transitory provisions of the Customs Code of Ukraine);
• goods, imported on the territory of Ukraine for unrestricted civil turnaround, except of tobacco products, alcoholic beverages and spirits (introduced starting from April 5 and until the martial law is abolished);
• vehicles (passenger cars, trailers, motorcycles, vehicles for more than 10 passengers) - introduced starting from April 5 and until the martial law is abolished.

Temporary rules for control over imported goods

In order to simplify the procedures and streamline import of necessary goods, the government introduced simplified procedures for control of import, including special regime of phytosanitary control.

According to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 20, 2022 no. 330 “On Peculiarities of Custom Control and Clearance of Goods, including Vehicles under Martial Law”, there are two procedures for customs clearance – simplified and ordinary procedure. Under ordinary procedure, goods go through usual procedure of customs clearance – and are subject to taxation with excise tax and VAT on common grounds. Under simplified procedure, goods are exempted of phytosanitary control and other means of non-tariff regulation (except of export control), as well as exempted from payment of all customs duties, VAT and excise tax. In order to use the simplified procedure, importer fills in and provides a preliminary customs declaration.

There is a number of restrictions for using such simplified procedure:

• not applicable to tobacco products and alcoholic beverages;
• one legal entity or an individual cannot use two procedures simultaneously;
• in order to use simplified procedure, it is necessary to file an application (in paper or electronic form);
• once the application is files, entity or individual may opt for ordinary procedure, but in the future, they will not be allowed to file an application for simplified procedure for the second time.

On April 1, 2022 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted Resolution no. 398 “Peculiarities of Phytosanitary Procedures under Martial Law” that is aimed at simplification of import of certain goods (vegetables, edible fruits and nuts, coffee, tea, mate, spices, cereals, flour and other similar products, seeds of oil cultures) – under the martial law and during 90 days after its abolishment it is allowed to import such goods without phytosanitary control, unless such goods lack phytosanitary certificates, or information in such certificate is inaccurate.