NCTS – a commitment to the European continent?
NCTS

NCTS – a commitment to the European continent?

As of October 1, Ukraine is a part of The New Computerised Transit System (NCTS). A look at latest developments.

Author: Ruth Setzler
Ruth Setzler
28.11.2022

NCTS: Basics and benefits
NCTS: Country overview. Now with Ukraine
NCTS: Outlook

Membership in the European Union is not a prerequisite for joining the common transit procedure. For simplified trade on the European continent, on the other hand, NCTS is elementary.

NCTS: Basics and benefits

Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance lists the following main objectives of NCTS:

  • Augmentation of the performance and efficiency of the transit procedure
  • Better prevention and discovery of fraud
  • Acceleration and better coverage of steps made in the frame of a transit procedure

Practice shows: Waiting times at the border are reduced, resulting in efficiency that pays off.

The following differences distinguish the Union transit procedure and the common transit procedure:

  • External Union transit procedure: Transport of non-Union goods within the EU (T1 procedure)
  • Internal Union transit procedure: Transport of Union goods within the EU (T2 procedure)
  • External common transit procedure: Transport of non-Union goods between the EU and the parties of the agreement (common T1 procedure)
  • Internal common transit procedure: Transport of Union goods between the EU and the parties of the agreement (common T2 procedure)

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NCTS: Country overview. Now with Ukraine

NCTS is applied in the customs territory of the Union. In addition to the EU member states, this also includes Monaco and Northern Ireland. San Marino and Andorra also participate in the Union transit procedure. 

For the common transit procedure, the group of participants is expanded to include the four EFTA countries Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Iceland, as well as Turkey (since December 1, 2016), Northern Macedonia (since July 1, 2015), Serbia (since February 1, 2016), the United Kingdom (since January 1, 2021), and now Ukraine (since October 1, 2022). 

Over 3,000 customs offices are linked in this way, you can find them on the current list of all customs offices. 

NCTS: Outlook

The acceleration of customs clearance has also boosted trade within the countries that have joined the agreement. Digital data transmission is a key success factor here. It therefore goes without saying that further developments must be made on an ongoing basis.

The contracting parties are in the process of migrating from NCTS version 4 to version 5. The Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance summarizes the goals as follows: “The goals of NCTS 5 are to align processes with the provisions of the UCC, introduce the EU Customs Data Model (EUCDM), and interface with the Automated Export System (AES) when an export consignment is transferred into a transit procedure.” The migration to NCTS 5 is scheduled to be completed for all parties by December 1, 2023.

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