European Customs Transit Systems and Prospects of Their Application in Ukraine

The provisions of key international legal acts on the regulation of international customs transit procedures currently used in Europe are analysed and summarized in the article. In particular, the peculiarities of such European customs transit systems as international road transport using the Carnet TIR, transit on temporary admission using the Carnet ATA, European Union transit, common transit procedure, postal transit, Rhine manifest procedure, and also the transit of goods for the purposes of NATO and other military activities are found out. The main cases and circumstances for application of listed transit procedure types, as well as the main factors influencing their use are established. In addition, the article raises questions about the specifics of international legal regulation of the customs transit procedure within each of the considered European transit systems, as well as the legal basis for their regulation within the European Union and Ukraine, where appropriate. Given that a significant number of European countries are part of the European Union, it is concluded that the common transit and Union transit are the most popular and frequently used customs transit systems. It is stressed that the common transit as a universal tool to facilitate international trade in Europe, that may also be used outside the European Union, is one of the key objects for Ukrainian customs legislation reforms. The latter are obligatory condition for the implementation of the Common transit convention. It is determined that the final formation of the legal framework, active testing of the New Computerized Transit System (NCTS) at the national and later at the international level, will allow Ukraine to fully integrate into this customs transit system, and therefore use all its benefits (in particular, the basic principle: one vehicle — one customs document — one customs guarantee).