Agenda

In accordance with the decision of the President of the Russian Federation and the action plan (“roadmap”) for reforming the system of customs authorities for the period up to 2020, the Federal Customs Service of Russia is creating a unified network of electronic customs and electronic declaration centers, which by 2020 should become the main places for electronic declaration of goods. Within the framework of a unified network of electronic customs, 3 electronic customs offices have been established and are functioning in the activity regions of the Volga, Ural and North Caucasus customs administrations and 10 electronic declaration centers.  In total, up to 2020, 9 electronic customs offices and 16 electronic declaration centers will be created. How is the declaration of goods in the electronic declaration centers implemented? How does the distribution of competence between the centers of electronic declaration and customs posts of actual control occur? How is the interaction of electronic declaration centers with the customs posts of actual control established? What are the advantages of remote documents submission technology? Have the technologies of automatic registration of goods declaration and automatic issue become “essential tools”? What new technological solutions related to the functioning of a unified network of electronic customs and electronic declaration centers are expected in the near future?

The main activity of the Federal Customs Service of Russia in accordance with the Comprehensive Program for the Development of the Federal Customs Service of Russia for the period up to 2020 is to provide the digitization and automation of customs authorities activities and the creation of comfortable conditions for the participants in foreign economic activity. The central element of this activity is the concentration of the declarative array in the centers of electronic declaration, located in the areas of federal property. The electronic declaration center of the Central Excise Customs, which began its operation in February 2019, has significantly reduced the time required for customs operations, improving the quality and transparency of the customs authority operation, while creating favorable conditions for doing business as a whole. What results have been achieved? How does the optimization of the places of actual control posts go?

The FCS of Russia conducts continuous work on creating favorable conditions for doing business and building a constructive dialogue with the business community based on a balance of interests of business and the state. With the active participation of leading business circles, customs legislation is being transformed.  When preparing the EEU Customs Code and the new Federal Law “On Customs Regulation …”, the best international customs administration practices were taken into account, the priority of automated electronic technologies over paper documents was established, and the mandatory requirements for participants in customs legal relations were optimized. Currently, large-scale work is underway to bring the acts of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the by-laws of the Russian Federation into conformity with the provisions of the EEU Customs Code and Federal Law. At the same time, the practical application of the provisions of the EEU Customs Code and the Federal Law revealed a number of problematic issues. What are the first results of the law enforcement practice of the EEU Customs Code provisions and the Federal Law? What issues need to be resolved? What are the prospects for the adoption of ECE decisions aimed at implementing the provisions of the EEU Customs Code? What should the business community expect from the adoption of by-laws aimed at implementing the provisions of the Federal Law? What work is being done by the ECE and the Ministry of Finance of Russia to clarify the provisions of the EEU Customs Code and the Federal Law? What is the scope of the upcoming work on making amendments and additions to the EEU Customs Code and the Federal Law? What international practices can be taken as a basis?

The active use of mechanisms for the pre-trial settlement of disputes and its further improvement through digitization enables businesses to simplify the interaction with customs authorities as much as possible when resolving controversial issues. With the adoption of the Federal Law “On Customs Regulation …” the procedure for filing and consideration of claims has been significantly optimized. Since January 1, 2022, the possibility of filing and considering claims in electronic form is provided. The practice of applying the departmental control mechanism as an effective tool in restoring the rights and legitimate interests of the state, as well as legal entities and individuals violated as a result of making illegal decisions in the field of customs, is actively expanding. What are the advantages of pre-trial settlement of customs disputes compared with the legal process? What are the prospects for automating and digitizing the process of filing and considering claims against customs authorities decisions in the field of customs? How is the departmental control of the customs authorities decisions in the field of customs performed, and what are its main goals and objectives? What are the prospects for the further development of mechanisms for out-of-court settlement of customs disputes?

One of the paradigms of the development of the customs sphere at the present can safely be called the transition to the automatic data processing system. One of the most important elements of such a system is pre-informing (PI) – a mandatory procedure for all modes of transport from July 1, 2019. What experience will the customs authorities and foreign economic activity participants gain? Are there plans for further development of the regulatory regime related to pre-informing? What opportunities do the foreign economic activity participants have when working in the “Personal Account”? What benefits of pre-informing are available to the process participants? How will pre-informing develop further? And what to expect after PI?

Following the consultations on the implementation of innovative solutions based on the World Customs Organization (WCO), the Russian Federation was chosen as a part of a limited number of participants in the WCO “Mercury II” pilot project aimed at using the electronic ATA carnet. The active participation of the Russian Federation in the pilot project will contribute to strengthening the prestige on the world stage, as well as contribute to the general idea of informatization of customs authorities and the implementation of promising customs technologies. What are the prospects for the use of electronic documents ATA carnet in order to speed up and simplify the customs operations? What are the advantages of the model of the WCO pilot project “Mercury II”? How does the process of automation of control over the goods transferred using electronic ATA carnets go? What are the main prospects for the use of the national model for the control and customs clearance of goods transferred by the ATA carnet? How and with whom is the information exchange through a system of interagency cooperation performed?

The economic efficiency of the project is expressed in the increase in tax revenues from sales growth, which would not occur without the Tax Free system (income tax, value added tax paid by the producers and the suppliers, personal income tax). The turnover of retail enterprises after the start of the pilot project implementation has increased. Also, positive economic effects are formed due to the increase in the number of tourists who use the infrastructure (hotels, restaurants, shops, etc.) and leave funds in the country’s economy. The Tax Free project has a significant image component and implements international trade and service standards. The pilot project can be considered successfully implemented at the first stage – with a limited number of participants and the use of paper workflow. How is the transition of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, the Federal Tax Service of Russia, Tax Free operators and retail stores to paperless Tax Free checks execution carried out? What results have been achieved in the framework of the Tax Free pilot project to date?

The personal account of the foreign economic activity participant is an important working tool when conducting foreign economic activity. It saves time and financial resources of entrepreneurs, allows to solve certain issues without leaving home or office at any time of the day. The “Permitting Documents” service provides various possibilities, including the receipt by the foreign economic activity participants of information on the classification of the imported goods as the facilities under jurisdiction, the opportunity to see on-line the permitting documents issued to them by the federal executive bodies. How to use the capabilities of this service of the Personal Account without any difficulty? What other advantages for the foreign trade activities participant can be found in it?

The personal account of the foreign economic activity participant is an important working tool when conducting foreign economic activity. It saves time and financial resources of entrepreneurs, allows to solve certain issues without leaving home or office at any time of the day. The “Currency Control” service provides various possibilities, including the receipt by the foreign economic activity participants of information on the availability of data on unique contract numbers and information on goods declarations registered by the customs authorities in the information resources of the customs authorities. How to use the capabilities of this service of the Personal Account without any difficulty? What other advantages for the foreign trade activities participant can be found in it?

The personal account of the foreign economic activity participant is an important working tool when conducting foreign economic activity. It saves time and financial resources of entrepreneurs, allows to solve certain issues without leaving home or office at any time of the day. The “Copyright holders” service provides various possibilities, including the receipt by the Copyright holder (their representative) of the state service for the inclusion of intellectual property in the customs register of intellectual property objects in electronic form, the opportunity to inform the customs authority about the receipt and review by the Copyright holder (their representative) of the notice of the goods release suspension. How to use the capabilities of this service of the Personal Account without any difficulty? What other advantages for the foreign trade activities participant can be found in it?

The personal account of the foreign economic activity participant is an important working tool when conducting foreign economic activity. It saves time and financial resources of entrepreneurs, allows to solve certain issues without leaving home or office at any time of the day. The “Statistical Declaration” service is designed to fill in and submit to the customs authorities a statistical form for recording the movement of goods, has various auxiliary tools facilitating the filling in of the statistical form. How to use the capabilities of this service of the Personal Account without any difficulty? What other advantages for the foreign trade activities participant can be found in it?

The personal account of the foreign economic activity participant is an important working tool when conducting foreign economic activity. It saves time and financial resources of entrepreneurs, allows to solve certain issues without leaving home or office at any time of the day. The “Bank Personal Account”, “Debt”, “Unified Personal Account” services provide various opportunities, including opportunities for ensuring the fulfillment of the obligation to make customs payments, as well as for informational interaction with the customs authorities on the issues related to the payment of customs fees. How to use the capabilities of this service of the Personal Account without any difficulty? What other advantages for the foreign trade activities participant can be found in it? How can a bank issuing bank guarantees in favor of the customs authorities receive information on their acceptance?

The forest is a national treasure of the peoples of Russia. The preservation of the forest largely determines the moral, economic and ecological situation in the country. A forest is a special type of state property, which in addition to its raw consumer value has a great ecological and social value as a habitat for animals and various peoples of Russia. Today, criminal activities of organized criminal groups in the field of forest exploitation represent a serious threat to the economic security of Russia. Forest complex products are included in the list of strategically important resources, for which illegal transfer the criminal liability is provided in the Russian Federation. The Federal Customs Service of Russia pays special attention to combating the illegal transfer of wood and timber through the customs border. What operational and investigative and preventive measures to stop the channels of smuggling of wood and timber are conducted by the Federal Customs Service of Russia? How are the requirements of the currency legislation of the Russian Federation complied with when exporting wood products? What models of interaction with law enforcement and other regulatory authorities in combating the smuggling of wood and timber products have shown their effectiveness?

In the new customs legislation there are the legal foundations for the widespread use of information technology when calculating, recording and paying the customs fees. The full-scale introduction of modern technologies for the payment of customs fees complies with both goals to ensure the completeness and timeliness of the collection of customs fees, and to create a comfortable environment for honest business. With their help, it became possible to achieve improvement in the quality and effectiveness of customs administration. However, the development does not stand still, new services of the Personal Account, including the informational interaction of the foreign economic activity participants, credit organizations, customs authorities and other entities engaged in customs activities, allowed to transform its functionality into a unified interactive environment. As a part of this interaction, all participants have the opportunity to solve their problems on-line with minimal time and technology costs. What opportunities open up when centralizing customs fees? What changes are expected due to the development of the Unified Personal Account services? How to set priorities in the framework of information interaction when ensuring the fulfillment of the obligation to pay customs fees? What are modern technologies of accounting and collection of debts for the payment of customs duties and taxes?

Currently, the European Union, as an integration association, is the main investment partner of the Russian Federation. Russia for the European Union is the largest supplier of strategically important goods, in particular, energy resources. Hence, there are obligations to maintain stable economic relations and the development of trade between partners, contrary to current political trends. In this vein, a special role is given to the customs sphere. The FCS of Russia interacts with foreign partners, including the ones from the EU countries. Despite the difficult economic and political conditions on the external contour, cooperation with a number of European colleagues is carried out most intensively on various aspects of customs.  Currently, the FCS of Russia is the only federal executive body that, in part of its competence, interacts with the coordinating body in the EU space – the European Commission. What joint customs projects using the latest information technologies are being implemented? What trends and prospects are appeared in terms of simplifying the customs procedures for fair foreign economic activity participants? What are the benefits for the business community under the conditions of the development of international customs cooperation? And how will their interests and needs be taken into account?

As a part of the implementation of a risk-based approach, when selecting objects and forms of customs control, the customs authorities of the Russian Federation use a subject-oriented model of the risk management system, which takes into account not only information about the goods being transferred, but also the characteristics of the participants of foreign economic activity transferring these goods in terms of their violation of the customs legislation. How is the procedure of automated categorization of the foreign trade activities participants applied? What criteria for evaluating the activities of the foreign trade activities participants affect the increase in risk level? What prospects of sectoral categorization can be expected by the foreign trade activities participants? How can the effect of the results of categorization on the process of customs operations can be assessed? How will the further assessment of the activities of the foreign trade activities participants be carried out in the future?

AEO is one of the most dynamically developing institutions, providing fair participants of foreign economic activity with the opportunity to use a set of special simplifications when carrying out customs operations, which can significantly reduce financial costs and the time for customs clearance of transferred goods. Due to these opportunities, as well as significant innovations in the regulation of the AEO institute, established by the EEU Customs Code and the new Federal Law “On Customs Regulation”, the business community has a high interest in this topic. What are the conditions for obtaining an AEO status? How attractive are the provided simplifications and benefits of AEO? What is the basis for the suspension and deprivation of AEO status? How will the AEO institute develop further?  What prospects to expect?

As part of the ongoing work to create an effective mechanism to counter the illegal turnover of goods in the Russian Federation, the development of marking and tracking systems for the goods continues. Currently, there is a positive experience in the use of marking tools, which is used to further expand the spectrum of application of marking. How is the process of creating a goods tracking system performed? What is the priority when organizing a pilot project? How should the strategy of introducing mandatory marking and functioning of an information system for goods marking be built? What effect has already been achieved from the conducted experiments and what to expect next? How does the business community participate in pilot projects? How to prepare for further transformations without damage and costs?

Establishing the characteristics of a product, necessary for its classification, as well as its safety and origin, is an important task when carrying out the customs control. Due to customs expertise, signs of inaccurate declaration are determined, as well as the indicators are set affecting the application of non-tariff regulation measures. What problems may arise when sampling the goods – the opinions of the controlling authorities and participants of foreign economic activity? What is the procedure for reimbursement of expenses arising in connection with the conduct of the customs expertise, if the results of the customs expertise revealed violations of international treaties and acts in the field of customs regulation? How are the decisions on attracting specialists and experts from other state authorities of the Russian Federation to assist in the conduct of customs control made and executed by the customs authority? What is the procedure for assigning a customs expertise for another expert organization (another expert?) Are there plans to further improve the procedure for conducting a customs expertise? How is the cooperation with foreign customs laboratories and expert organizations carried out?

The automated information system “Expertise Database” is intended for the complex automation of the activities of forensic customs services of Russia, recording expert information in a unified system, obtaining statistical reports on stored expert information and exchanging information between the participants of work processes in terms of creating a unified expert information documentation space , namely the processes of registration, storage, submission and distribution of expert documentation, issuance, control of the performance of expert studies and their archival storage. The system allows to exchange electronic documents between expert, design and law enforcement units of customs authorities, as well as with participants of foreign economic activity through a personal account. What are the main mechanisms of interaction between software of expert, design and law enforcement units of the customs authorities? How is the interaction with participants of foreign economic activity carried out? And are there opportunities and ideas for further digitization of activities?

International e-commerce has great potential for economic growth and competitiveness of countries, stimulates new consumption trends and creates new jobs. The relevance of the topic is attributable to the rapid progress of Internet technology, combined with the intensive development of international economic relations, contributing to the wide spread of international e-commerce. The benefits of using the Internet are attracting an increasing number of participants seeking to take advantage of new business, sales and purchases opportunities. Information technologies have become an indispensable companion of almost any area of modern business and the reason for the formation of a new economy. The Internet today is a whole industry that is rapidly penetrating into all areas of human activity. This industry is in a stage of rapid growth. Companies all over the world see a great commercial potential in the Internet and the possibility of transferring their business to a qualitatively new level. The new trade model, including “business for consumer” (B2C) and “consumer for consumer” (C2C) transactions, sets a number of tasks for customs and tax authorities to simplify the procedure for clearance of goods, to create an effective mechanism for paying customs fees and to simplify tax refund. How are the mechanisms for confirming the 0% VAT rate for retail exports implemented today? How is the administration of international e-commerce in the terms of the EEU law carried out? What are the international trends in the development of online commerce and its regulation? What place in world trade will e-commerce take in the near future?

In order to obtain practically relevant information, the FCS of Russia has organized operation on the protection of intellectual property rights with both copyright holders and foreign customs services. In the course of cooperation with foreign customs services, agreements were reached on the exchange of information with the General Administration of Customs of China on the facts of the detection of counterfeit goods transferred in the terms of mutual trade, including those sent to IGOs. A close cooperation with the customs services of the EEU partner countries in the framework of the Working Group at the United Customs Board on intellectual property protection is carried out, working meetings are held with representatives of industry associations representing the interests of leading domestic and international companies owning brand names. What anti-counterfeiting projects are being implemented in the framework of international customs cooperation today? What opportunities and advantages are opened thanks to the information cooperation between the FCS of Russia and Rospatent? How is the cooperation between the FCS of Russia and the holders of intellectual property rights formed? What else can be improved in terms of stakeholder engagement to reduce counterfeit scale?

Despite the dynamic introduction of information technology in the activities of customs authorities, the work of dog handlers and service dogs still remains significant. Carrying out operational and investigative measures, the implementation of effective customs control, the suppression of the illegal transfer of drugs, psychotropic substances and weapons across the customs border is a real problem for cynological services in all countries. International competitions of dog handlers of customs services in Asia, Europe and the CIS have become a platform for the exchange of experience. Within the framework of the event there were discussed prospects for the further development of cynological services of customs authorities, improvement of the efficiency of the dog handlers and strengthening of the international cooperation. What was discussed within the framework of the event? Who is the winner?