On February 28, 2022, the European Commission published the following communication in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union (2022/C 93 I/01):
Council Regulation (EU) 2022/263 of 23 February 2022 concerning restrictive measures in reaction to the recognition of the areas of the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk not controlled by the government and the order given to the Russian armed forces to entering these areas introduced a ban on the import into the European Union of goods originating from these areas from the day following that of its publication.
Union importers are advised to carefully check the actual origin of the goods they are declaring, as there are risks that goods subject to the prohibition provided for in the abovementioned Regulation may be imported into the Union. from neighboring countries of Ukraine, in particular Russia and Belarus. This may in particular be the case for coal products falling within CN heading 2701 and steel products falling within CN headings 7201 to 7207 and CN headings 7304, 7305 and 7306. In view of this risk of circumvention,
On 23 February 2022, the European Commission published the following communication in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union (2022/C 87 I/01):
The European Commission informs importers that the conditions necessary for the Ukrainian customs authorities to effectively manage and control the preferential tariff treatment provided for under the Association Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Ukraine, on the other hand, are not met for goods produced in, or exported from, non-government-controlled regions of Ukraine of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Given the impossibility of the Ukrainian customs authorities to apply the relevant provisions of the agreement aimed at ensuring that goods from these regions can benefit from the preferential tariff treatment and to check that they meet all the requirements set out in particular in Article 33 of Protocol No 1 to the Association Agreement, the conditions are not met to allow these goods to benefit from preferential tariff treatment.
Accordingly, EU operators are recommended not to claim preferential treatment for the import into the EU of any goods produced in areas of Ukraine not controlled by the government of Donetsk Oblasts and of Luhansk or exported from the said regions, since the release for free circulation of these goods gives rise to a customs debt from the date of publication of this notice.
In case of additional information or if new measures are announced, we will inform you via this channel, as well as on the website of the National Forum .
Source: belgium.be
