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Strengthening the fight against smuggling is required, but some amendments to the legislation violate the international obligations of Ukraine,-Volodymyr Bondar on the law on additional moratorium on export of firewood

The President of Ukraine vetoed the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on July 3, 2018, the law of Ukraine "on amending the Law of Ukraine" on amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the preservation of Ukrainian forests and the prevention of illegal of unprocessed timber.

In particular, the law temporarily, for the period of 8 years from the date of its entry into force, is forbidden to export outside the customs territory of Ukraine in customs mode of the export of wood fuel (commodity position 4401100000 according to UKTFEA) (paragraph 2 of section II).

"By supporting the need to implement measures to preserve Ukrainian forests and prevent illegal forestry, it should be noted that the introduction of such a prohibition does not meet the international obligations of Ukraine, According to the Protocol on Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization, ratified by the Law of Ukraine of April 10, 2008, № 250 – VI. In accordance with article XI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 of the Year no prohibition or restriction, except for duties, taxes, or other fees, whether in the form of quotas, import or export licenses or other measures shall not be established or applied Any party concerning the import of any goods that originated from the territory of any other party, or concerning export or sale for export of any goods intended for import to any other party,-said in the proposals President.

This is also not consistent with Ukraine's commitments under the association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Community of nuclear energy and their member States, on the other hand, ratified by the Law of Ukraine of 16 September 2014, № 1678 – VII. In accordance with article 35 of this Agreement, no party shall impose or maintain any prohibition or restriction or measures of equivalent action on imports of any other party or export or sale to export any goods, The territory of the other party, except as stipulated in this Agreement or in accordance with Article XI GATT 1994 and its notes on interpretation.

"Counting the set, introduced by the law temporary, for the period of 8 years, prohibition of removal beyond the customs territory of Ukraine in customs regime of the export of wood fuel (commodity position 4401100000 according to UKTFEA) can not be supported. Therefore, I propose para 2 section II of the Law of Ukraine "on amending the Law of Ukraine" on amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine on preserving Ukrainian forests and preventing illegal forestry of raw materials "exclude, Setting the protective measures aimed at preserving Ukrainian forests, applying which will correspond to the international obligations of Ukraine, is proposed in the proposals of the President of Ukraine.

According to deputy head of the state agency of Forest Resources Volodymyr Bondar, President and administration of the President explained their actions clearly and specifically.

"The President advocates for strengthening the fight against smuggling, including the forest, but the law has been made between the first and second reading various corrections that violate the international obligations of Ukraine." And from the president's point of view, this thing has to be corrected, he said.

Volodymyr Bondar also noted that the specialists of the State forestry have worked on this law for a long time, together with the developers: «Our arguments were the following. It should be taken into account that raw materials are not processed in Ukraine. Today it is not processed in Ukraine, it will not be recycled and tomorrow. and therefore it is necessary to understand the time frames that should be given to our businesses in order to resolve the issue of this raw material. Otherwise it will just be piled up in warehouses and at some time the enterprises of forestry cease to work.

To prohibit the export of firewood deputy head of the department said: it is a matter of not only its own firewood, but also derivative products. We are talking about chips, we're talking about piclets, we're talking about firewood chopped, it's processing products, including firewood chopped, because they pass through the appropriate droplets, this is the equipment road-crossing, which was brought to Ukraine. And if, for example, to take the Transcarpathian region in particular, as far as I understand, more than 500 people are engaged in production and export of this product. These meter firewood could not be classified as a business forest. So I think these things need to correct in the law, fix and make them out of the prohibition of export. Because in this case it will harm the Ukrainian economy.

According to the information http://dklg.kmu.gov.ua/forest/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=194051&cat_id=32888