Posted by Jorge Zukoski on Nov 30, 2011 in Customs Sector, Logistics Sector, News & Updates | 0 comments
Living in a country with a developing and expanding economy requires knowledge of fundamental truths of attracting and retaining investments. You do not necessarily need to be an expert in these specific issues to understand that comprehensive and effective internal trade regulations are essential for improving the business and investment environment in the country. The answer to the question about what it really takes for the internal trade regulations to be effective is a bit more complicated. First of all it has to consider the State’s strategic interests as well as the interests of consumers and all entities that are involved in commercial activities. But most importantly the legislative framework of internal trade should be perceived as a unique tool for solving conflicts of interest between different stakeholders in the social and economic processes.
Keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at the recently introduced by the Cabinet of Ministers Draft Law #9443 “On Internal Trade” which was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada on November 10. Explanatory Note tells us that the document aims to define legal and institutional framework for functioning of internal trade in Ukraine, and regulate relations in trade and production activities.
Needless to say that this type of legislation is highly important for organizations like the American Chamber of Commerce who represent many companies that will be impacted by these new rules. Therefore, when the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine made public the draft version of the document the American Chamber of Commerce took an active part in the process of drafting the consolidated proposals from the business community. Along with other organizations we have addressed Mykola Azarov, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Andriy Klyuev, the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economic Development and Trade, and of course the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine submitting over 90 pages of specific proposals and recommendations.
The main reason that made us willing to get engaged in the process of drafting the Law was the fact that initial statutory wording was not only unable to ensure fulfillment of the declared goals of improving business environment in Ukraine but on the contrary contributed to introducing additional barriers for doing business. Besides we explicitly highlighted that the draft law was developed with major violations of the procedures for evaluating the possible regulatory impact if the law was adopted. And on top of that developers did not seem to evaluate or correlate the expenses and benefits of the law implementation neither for the State nor for the citizens or businesses.
Even though many organizations were willing to contribute to finalizing the draft before it was submitted to the Ukrainian Parliament unfortunately, the developers did not hold any public discussions.
While conducting preliminary evaluation of the already submitted version of the document the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine remains concerned about the issues of new accounting and reporting procedures in trade establishment (Article 15); organization of trade and production (Article 7); specific issues of distance selling (Article 8), commission trade (Article 9), and retail chains (Article 10); certain aspects of contracts execution in food products trade (Article 16); requirements for human resources in the field of internal trade (Article 17), as well as state regulation in the field of internal trade (Section IV).
We will continue analyzing the provisions of the law as well as doing our best to establish the necessary dialog between the government, expert community and business to prevent the negative impact that the law will cause if adopted in the current statutory wording.
Read the Russian version at DELO.UA