AMEU asks the EU to intervene in the situation with the transit of Ukrainian cargo through Constanta

AMEU has sent official appeals regarding problems with Ukrainian cargo at the port of Constanta to the Ukrainian and Romanian authorities and the European Commission.

This was reported by the Association of International Freight Forwarders of Ukraine.

The decision was made based on the results of a survey of freight forwarders conducted on September 3-9.

According to the Association, the main problem remains the shortage of customs officers who process transit declarations. 90% of those surveyed reported that processing a T1 takes two days or more, and in some documented cases the procedure lasted up to seven days.

The situation became even more complicated between September 14-22, when, according to AMEU, only three officials worked in transit control.

Among other problems, freight forwarders mentioned additional requirements for the remark “cargo in transit to Ukraine” in the transit declaration, the need for a representative to be present during each clearance despite the NCTS guarantee, repeated inspections and weighing of cargo, as well as delays due to alleged violations of intellectual property rights, which are subsequently not confirmed.

AMEU appealed to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Reconstruction, as well as to the European Commission (DG TAXUD). On the Romanian side, the appeal was sent to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport of Romania, the Port Authority of Constanta, DP World Constanța and the USER freight forwarders association.

The association asks to increase the number of customs officers working with transit cargo, introduce duty on weekends and holidays, establish a regulatory deadline for T1 clearance and allow remote submission of documents.

Separately, AMEU asks to make the PIN/slot issuance system more transparent and restore the possibility of unloading containers at the warehouse instead of the mandatory submission of a vehicle.

The Association calls on the European Commission to consider supporting Romanian customs authorities within the framework of Solidarity Lanes, as well as to assess the compliance of certain customs requirements with EU legislation.

USM previously reported that AMEU is collecting data on companies with cargo blocked on the Harrison.