“Single Window is defined as a facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements”
UN/CEFACT RECOMMENDATION No. 33
MINUTES No 21 WG
Meeting of the Interagency Working Group on Facilitation of International Trade and Logistics in Ukraine
|
Kyiv |
25 February, 2016 |
Venue: 7 Institutska Str.
Opened: 09:30
Closed: 11:00
List of Participants: Annex No 1
AGENDA
Speaker: Mr Platonov O. I., Deputy Chairman of IWG, President of UKRZOVNISHTRANS Association
Speaker: Mr Fedorov O. O. - Expert of the IWG, Director General of LLC "PPL 33-35"
Speaker: Mr Kunatenko V.I., Deputy Head of the Monitoring Department for the Agreements Performance, Office for Cooperation with WTO, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine
Speaker: Mr Platonov O. I., Deputy Chairman of IWG, President of UKRZOVNISHTRANS Association
Mr Shchelkunov V. I., Deputy Chairman of the Interagency Working Group on Facilitation of International Trade and Logistics in Ukraine (IWG), Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, President of the Ukrainian National Committee of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Ukraine) opened the meeting and announced the agenda.
He proposed to discuss the issues, envisaged by the Agenda.
On the first issue of the Agenda:
Implementation of the IWG decisions and orders of the Government of Ukraine.
Mr Shchelkunov V. I. informed the participants on the results of the IWG activities. He emphasized that despite the political and economic upheavals taking place in Ukraine the IWG achieved certain results. These results are visible and measurable. He gave the floor to the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine on European Integration, Ms Oksana Reiter.
Ms Oksana Reiter reported on the active cooperation between the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Economy in the context of signing the WTO TFA by Ukraine, and informed on the speech of the Trade Representative of Ukraine Mrs Natalia Mykolska at the WTO Council about the restrictions imposed by Russia, and on support of Ukraine by the United States, the European Union, Canada, and Turkey.
She thanked the IWG for its systematic work aimed at the development of trade and commercial relations as trade facilitation is an integral part of nation's sustainable development. She drew attention to the importance of the transport component, namely the development of transit traffic, especially using the new Silk Road.
She looked forward to IWG further work in this direction and promised full support of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Economy.
Mr Viacheslav Voronoy briefed on what had been done since the last IWG meeting in the context of implementation of e-Single Window.
He reported that new process scheme was introduced for formalities for containers arriving to the crossing point for international maritime cargo-passenger traffic across the national border at Illichivsk Fishing Port by road and rail modes of transport. Now they launched a pilot document exchange (both in electronic and paper formats). During this year, applications, documents and receiving orders for export containers would be made only in electronic form.
He also informed on the following:
- starting from this month they ensured 100 percent availability of electronic applications for road transport on the territory of Odessa Seaport in the export direction in the Port Community System (ISPS);
- this year ISPS had been already implemented in all Ukrainian ports; now the formalities for ships calling Ukrainian ports are handled exclusively electronically;
- - on December 25 Ministry of Infrastructure and the State Fiscal Service (SFS) signed a memorandum on cooperation in the field of information technologies and improving of formalities in the seaports for containerized goods;
- based on the testing the Memorandum and objectives set for Ministry of Infrastructure there are the first results: the forwarder can now receive information about the intended form of customs control and can get permission to unload or load the container onto a vehicle before the arrival of the ship in sea port;
- Memorandum on information cooperation between the state enterprise USPA and Ukrainian Railways has been signed, which identifies certain steps. Today they prepared a process scheme for rail transport formalities, which is consistent with Ukrainian Railways;
- Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine submitted the draft Law 3731 "On the Functioning of the Port Community System" to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
He outlined the action plan for 2016:
- first of all, the transition to electronic formalities for ships leaving the port; connection of other port authorities to the vessel module (harbour services, the pilot service) that have been already connected to the ISPS to study its work;
- testing electronic consignment note in the context of implementation of the Memorandum with Ukrainian Railways;
- further work on memorandum between the Ministry of Infrastructure and the State Fiscal Service in the part of integration between ISPS and customs system Cargo Targeting System (CTS), i.e. risk assessment system by the World Customs Organization presented to Ukrainian customs. This system is designed for automated risk analysis; information that is currently stored in the ISPS system will serve as a basis for CTS to implement such a risk analysis. So now they worked through technical rules of interaction between these two systems.
He reminded that a project to optimize internal port grain logistics is very important in view of the upcoming grain season. Now one of the Odessa port operators is testing a system of electronic formalities for import and processing of grain. Based on the results of the introduction of this system, a decision to further spread this experience would be made.
Summarizing his report, Mr Voronoy informed the IWG on the draft Law "On Electronic Trust Services", which was developed pursuant to Regulation (EC) № 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council as of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for the purposes of electronic transactions in the internal market, provided for implementation by the Association Agreement. It is extremely important for the project because, first, it allows the provider to sign the transformed message, and second, allows the integration with the systems of EU ports and receiving information from the exit of vehicles from these ports.
Mr Vitaly Karlash representative of Ministry of Justice, informed that the Draft Law on electronic trust services (2544a) was included in the agenda of the Parliament session and had to be considered last week, on 17 February 2016 (before consideration of the report of the Government). That day Parliament did not consider this issue, so there is a need to re-include it in the agenda.
Mr Volodymyr Shchelkunov proposed to prepare a substantiated letter to the Parliament explaining the need to accelerate the adoption of this law.
Mr Viktor Dovgan (USAID Trade Policy Project) announced that the Ministry of Finance had developed the draft amendments to the Customs Code regarding authorized economic operators (hereinafter - AEO), which had been already submitted to the committee; it was analyzed and indicated as generally thorough. In addition, the introduction of AEO meets the requirements of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, additionally being a matter of compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law, in view of the Free Trade Agreement. He proposed to turn to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy Ms Yuzhanina N.P., so they focused on this draft.
Mr Volodymyr Shchelkunov proposed to prepare a reasoned letter in support of the draft law "On amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine (concerning the Authorized Economic Operator and simplified customs formalities)".
Mr Volodymyr Pysar (EUBAM) supported this initiative, since last year, together with the European Commission they actively supported the development of this draft law by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. He informed that according to the EC, this bill has been analyzed and that under the Association Agreement, it is one of the conditions contained in the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. That means this project has been designed in such a way as to meet these requirements, and now there is a good opportunity for Ukraine to move forward in this very important direction of trade facilitation, because it really focuses on simplifying customs procedures, the safety of international trade and other standards of the European and global trade. He promised to prepare more detailed information on this subject.
Mr Oleksandr Fedorov supported the proposal to submit a bill to Verkhovna Rada and welcomed possible joint meeting of the IWG, the Public Council, SFS and members of the Committee to comprehensively discuss the issues raised and to eliminate the concerns expressed by certain decision-makers. He emphasized that the introduction of AEO was also one of the trade facilitation measures (Article 7 Item 7 TFA).
At the same time he pointed out that members of the IWG, with the participation of representatives of regulatory bodies and in coordination of SFS Odessa customs, conducted a time release study in the sea port of Odessa on the methodology of the World Customs Organization (WCO), the results of which should contribute to the improvement of business processes, being also a trade facilitation measure (Item 6 of Art. 7 TFA), but SFS still hasn't been using it in their work.
Mr Volodymyr Shchelkunov proposed to invite to the joint meeting the representatives of PC under SFS, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PC under the Ministry of Finances that have some knowledge on the issue raised and make a joint decision as a common public opinion, and submit the proposals to the Committee.
Mr Oleg Platonov said that the AEO is not just a matter relating to the Customs Code of Ukraine, regarding which ministries, agencies and legislators have not performed their tasks. All the innovations to be included into the Customs Code must first be checked for compliance with European law and the recommendations of international organizations. Certain rules already exist in the Customs Code, but they just do not work, as in the process of the ongoing reforms in the country, in some areas, as an experiment, team of innovators initiated amendments to the Customs Code as innovations, however what we really need is to pass special laws and regulations. There are over 200 references so far.
As for the IWG work, he thanked the Ministry of Infrastructure, Border Service, State Enterprise USPA, and Ministry of Economic Development. He informed that within a week the IWG would start to implement the task of establishing the National Committee on Trade Facilitation. IWG now operates as a Secretariat on the launch of the Committee on Trade Facilitation, which should be established on 1 October this year, based on the presented model. The Minister of Economic Development and Trade/Vice-Prime Minister should be appointed as its Chairman, responsible for economic cooperation. He noted that the IWG is operating under the tasks identified by the Government. He expressed hope that the National Committee on Trade Facilitation would be established before October 2016. It should have clear and transparent processes that would facilitate trade and logistics, respecting the challenges Ukraine faces now, namely: barriers to transit in the Eurasian direction, obstacles for drivers of long-distance freight transport. Ukraine takes proactive position in the implementation of the New Silk Road, which includes the infrastructure of the Black and the Caspian Seas. It is too expensive for road transport, but rail freight price fits the level expected by the Ukrainian exporters. Work on these challenges continues: there is one unresolved issue concerning the air transport. SE USPA showed a positive example in the context of maintaining a system of automatic data processing; there is an order of Vice Prime Minister of 2014 to establish a working group on the implementation of IATA E-freigh technology. This subject is similar to the implementation of ISPS.
He offered the floor to the representative of State Aviation Service of Ukraine, Mr Viktor Kordianin.
Mr Viktor Kordianin informed that the State Aviation Service has its own vision on the implementation of the Single Window and IATA E-freight in Ukrainian airports. He confirmed that they might take what had been done in other transport modes as a basis. He presented the vision of the SAS (Annex 2 - presentation). He suggested to include the SAS into the IWG to implement projects and to integrate into the IWG.
Mr Viacheslav Voronoy offered to establish a committee (or group) under the IWG and engage USPA as consultants to share their valuable experience.
Mr Oleksandr Fedorov supported the idea to engage the aviation sector to join the work, as the E-freight concept is based on the UNECE recommendations 33, 34, 35. He proposed the following plan for the future: to focus the IWG structure on the policy direction, which will deal with policy issues of trade facilitation and logistics; technical or expert direction (industry experts who work directly in a given area, in a given mode of transport, perfectly aware of the processes) and legal direction. When the IWG structure corresponds to the structure of the national body for trade facilitation, the IWG activities will be more effective. Through the Ministry of Infrastructure he invited representatives of other modes of transport to work in all areas.
DECIDED:
1.2. To bring to the attention of all IWG members the content and list of unperformed protocol decisions of IWG.
Deadline: 15.03.2016
Responsible: IWG Secretariat
Deadline: 21.03.206
Responsible: IWG Secretariat and members
Deadline: 30.03.2016.
Responsible: IWG Secretariat
1.5. 1.5. To prepare an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in support of the bill "On Electronic Trust Services"
Deadline: 15.03.2016
Responsible: IWG Secretariat
1.6. 1.6. To support the proposal of the USAID Trade Policy representative and to prepare an appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in support of the bill "On Amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine (concerning the Authorized Economic Operator and simplified customs formalities)"
Deadline: 15.03.2016
Responsible: IWG Secretariat
On the second issue of the Agenda:
Provision of EDS-related services.
Mr Oleksandr Fedorov informed that on October 29, 2015 the official website of Accredited Center for Key Certification of the Information Department under SFS (ACKC ID SFS) in its News section published a statement "On specifications of DS services by proxy". According to this report, starting from 30 October 2015, to obtain DS services, the proxyship of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, individuals and persons who carry out independent professional activity, will be carried out in ACKC ID SFS in person or solely on the basis of power of attorney notarized in compliance with the Law of Ukraine of September 12, 1993 № 3425 "On Notary".
Following the publication of this statement IWG Secretariat addressed the Head of SFS with a letter saying that this requirement contradicts to the provision in Art. 246 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, according to which the power of attorney on behalf of a legal entity shall be issued by its authority or other person authorized by the relevant constituent documents. It also contradicts the sixth paragraph Item 5.1 (The procedure for the identification and registration of applicants) of ACKC ID SFS Regulation adopted by the Head of SFS on 09.12.2014, according to which, power of attorney for legal entities shall be certified by the stamped signature of the CEO (Annex No 3 - IWG Secretariat letter No 920 as of 11.17.2015).
Some time later, Deputy Chairman of SFS with reference to the legislation and the fact that (Appendix No 4 - SFS letter number 26042/6 / 99-95-44-16 as of 04.12.2015) replied.
He told about the attempt to do what was asked by SFS, and the challenges faced. He expressed concern over the fact that such tools used by public and private bodies, are hindering not only development but also business processes. He said that to obtain such power of attorney from the notary requires a lot of time, money and effort, including moral efforts. Too bad SFS still decided to do that. Suspicion fell on one or two subjects, but the barrier now is for everyone, not taking notice on one's fair play. He proposed to use a system of risk analysis for registration of companies, and risk profiles of those companies that have already been registered. He drew attention to the need for state-business and business-state dialogue.
Mr Vitaly Karlash proposed to take into account that in Ukraine the institution of electronic identification is still evolving. In this context, there is a bill which was mentioned earlier at the meeting (draft law on electronic trust services (2544a). Settlement of legal relations for electronic identification is the responsibility of the State Agency for Electronic Governance of Ukraine, which recently has implemented a strategy of identification including new approaches to the identification of citizens. Now they are actively changing, evolving, and reforming the system. A separate component of the identification strategy is the issue of identification under trust services.
If the new law "On Electronic Trust Services" is enacted, new identification scheme will be launched, harmonized with the provisions of Regulation (EC) № 910/2014 of the European Parliament and Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions within internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93 / EC.
Now a Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Digital Signature" is in force, which provides contractual terms that offer digital signature.
That means the company subscribes to the risks it assumes in the case of losses suffered by the company in the event of third company fraud to establish a business representative for his personal digital signature, or agrees to the terms offered by the centers.
Certification Authorities approached the Administration of Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, as the rules of qualified certification require for identification procedure for the signatory.
The order of the identification must be written in the rules of certification authority and applied in the Deed of Accession.
Proposals for improving the identification and authentication of the applicant (signatory and / or user) when receiving a digital signature were produced by a joint working group on the development of draft legal acts in the area of digital signature, created by order of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine as of March 13, 2013 № 421/5/117. For public discussion these proposals were posted on the website of central certification authority. Accredited Key Certification Center under SFS was only one part of this overall process of discussion.
Perhaps at the time of the discussion centers have not informed its subscribers.
If you need to modify the procedure for identification and authentication of the applicant (signatory and / or user) when receiving a digital signature, it is possible to re-convene the Scientific Expert Council, re-engage all centers and respectively amend those procedures, taking into account the views of other stakeholders.
Mr Ivan Romanov, Director of the Information Department under DFS. Indeed, the fact is the case, but it was not spontaneous. A respective meeting was held because more than 20 large organizations have reported that in the market there are scammers who fake e-signatures and, accordingly, record their VAT. Thus, the state and the companies suffered losses worth about UAH 500 mln. Today there are many criminal implementations in Ukraine, where the SFS officers are involved as possible culprits. That is why the measure was adopted: to implement appropriate notarization and also to limit receiving electronic signature on the Region-based grounds. He expressed the view that if the CEO does not want to risk its money and reputation, he can get EDS by himself.
Regarding the partnership between SFS and the business community, Mr Ivan Romanov recalled on creating a single center that provides free EDS services; more than 90 points of registration were created, but today, due to the reduction of staff SFS reserves just 38 points in the regional centers and some areas, and that really poses a problem.
He confirmed that SFS is ready to consider IWG's proposals on these issues.
Mr Oleksandr Fedorov said that it is a multifaceted issue that requires special attention. He confirmed commitment to multilateral discussions to address these issues. He called for a civilized way, as it is done in other countries, based on the state-business relations.
Mr Vitaly Karlash said that there is another problem: the digital signature in a workflow relationship is a relatively new technology for signatory identification (identification of the person, signing the document).
Not everyone understands that the use of digital signature by subjects of e-document flow to identify the signer and confirm the integrity of the data in electronic form (including during the transactions, establishing the author of electronic document, confirming the integrity of the electronic document, etc.) has the same legal consequences as in the determination of an individual using the passport of a citizen or other documents, which make it impossible to have any doubt about a person.
Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Digital Signature" determined that the signatory is a person who lawfully possesses a private key and on his own behalf or on behalf of the person it represents, imposes the electronic signature when creating an electronic document. Signer shall keep the private key in secret.
Additionally, "the representative of signatory" (a legal entity), as the subject of legal relations in the digital signature is not envisaged by the Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Digital Signature" (although it stipulates an authorized representative of physical person). That means that the notary has the right to refuse to grant a power of attorney to "a representative of a legal person" as it is not provided by the legislation of Ukraine. In other words, to get the private key for digital signature the CEO of a legal entity as a signer should go to the center in person or determine another authorized signer on behalf of the person he represents, to impose electronic signature when creating an electronic document.
Mr Lev Bayazitov disagreed with the position of the Ministry of Justice, as the electronic signature, in his opinion, is not a passport, but an analogous to the hand signature, which he can and may use for transactions. Passport is just an identity card, so this case should be regarded as a precedent when they use concept of guilt: the person who receives DS through the power of attorney is obviously guilty. Therefore, it is very profound legal issue, and he offered to look at the problem from this perspective.
DECIDED:
2.2. To recommend SFS of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Justice, based on the discussion, to decide on the alternative (compared to outlined in the SFS letter number 26042/6 / 99-95-44-16 as of 04.12.2015) method of preventing violations in the use of digital signature . To inform the IWG Secretariat on the results
Deadline: 31.03.2016
Responsible: SFS of Ukraine
On the third issue of the Agenda:
Status of ratification and implementation of WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement by Ukraine and establishment of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF).
Mr Volodymyr Shchelkunov gave the floor to the representative of Ministry of Economic Development.
Mr Vitaliy Kunatenko informed that one of the issues of concern relating to the implementation of the provisions of the Category A is the issue of Authorized Economic Operators, and this issue remains unresolved, because the relevant draft is not in Parliament, but there are certain remarks provided by the Committee. As regards the other commitments of the Category A, there is a certain number of reservations, but almost everything that Ukraine notified as Category A, has been already introduced and implemented.
He informed that the National Committee had not yet been established, but as it is bound by international agreement, it is likely to be created soon. Ministry has studied the experience of other countries on this issue, it has informed the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, but there are some technical procedural issues, such as the statement of the Minister, who, obviously, should decide on the final format, structure, functions and tasks of this authority.
Mr Volodymyr Shchelkunov informed about the work that was done IWG to develop a national strategy for trade facilitation, project of national body to facilitate trade. This was repeatedly discussed with the Ministry of Economy; there is the order of the Government of Ukraine, which has to be processed by relevant ministries and by September 1 this issue should be resolved.
Mr Mario Apostolov informed that the seminar, which starts right after the IWG meeting, would discuss the creation of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation.
DECIDED:
On the third issue of the Agenda:
Action Plan for 2016
Mr Oleg Platonov presented the IWG Action Plan 2016, which includes:
Chairman V.I. Shchelkunov
