On November 17, 2022, the 16th AEB Annual Customs Conference "Customs and Business: Adjusting Cooperation to New Realities" took place in the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel. 

The conference became an important final chord of the great and hard job done by the AEB Customs and Transport Committee this year.

Wilhelmina Shavshina, Chairperson of the AEB Customs and Transport Committee, B1 Partner, moderated the plenary session.

Tadzio Schilling, CEO of the Association of European Businesses, in his opening speech noted the achievements of the committee and a lot of challenges that have been faced this year in connection with the sanctions and the disruption of supply chains. The Customs and Transport Committee has organized about 20 webinars on customs registration and logistics in the current conditions. AEB held a number of meetings on the categorization of participants in foreign economic activity and a large meeting with representatives of the Federal Customs Service on a wide range of issues.

Andrey Konstantinov, Head of the Analytical Department of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, spoke about the implementation of a comprehensive program for the development of the Federal Customs Service and key areas of the Russian customs development strategy until 2030. Thus, the reform of the state declaration system was successfully implemented, the time for issuing customs declarations was reduced, and the work to fill the electronic system with artificial intelligence elements is continuing.

Artur Galiullin, Deputy Director of the Department for International Cooperation and Licensing in Foreign Trade of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, presented an overview of existing financial instruments to support exports, new transport and logistics corridors, and new measures to support priority imports.

Leonid Lozbenko, Head of Public council under the FCS of Russia, described 3 main problems that business is facing now: finance, logistics and import of spare parts. These are strategic issues that the FCS and the Public Council are now concentrating on.

The first working session of the conference was devoted to the formation of customs value and judicial practice.

Galina Dontsova, Advisor, Dentons, Ksenia Sizova, Senior manager of Global Trade and Customs Regulation practice, B1, Aleksandr Kosov, Head of Customs and Foreign Trade Regulation Practice, Partner, Pepeliaev Group, and Sergey Vasiliev, Chairperson of the AEB North-Western Regional Committee's Customs, Transport & Logistics Subcommittee, Legal Director, Head of Foreign Trade and Customs Practice, Denuo, presented the trends and methods for determining customs value, inclusion of license fees and transportation costs in the customs value of goods, trends in checks on the classification of goods according to customs nomenclature.

The participants of the second session discussed the issues of simplification of customs procedures.

Sergey Vladimirov, Director of the Department of Customs Legislation and Law Enforcement Practice of the EEC, Evgeny Mishutkin, Head of Import-Export Services Department, Nestle Russia LLC, and Alexey Sizov, Partner of Taxology, spoke about the development of standard requirements for the goods accounting system within the framework of the institution of authorized economic operators (AEO), the conditions for granting the AEO status, steps for the further development of the AEO institution in Russia and the categorization of foreign economic activity participants.

The third session was devoted to the issues of labeling and certification. 

Moderator of the session Vadim Zakharenko, Deputy Chairman of the AEB Customs and Transport Committee, IRU General Delegate to Eurasia, noted the benefits of labeling as a mechanism for whitewashing the market and combating counterfeiting. 

Labeling issues were discussed in detail by AEB invited experts - Aleksey Kasyanyuk, Head of the Desk Control Department, the Federal Tax Service, Alexander Kirilchenko, Head of the Customs Law and International Trade Practice, BGP Litigation, Sergey Kachenov, Business Development Manager for Co-packing, FM Logistic, Anastasia Osipova, Head of customs department, Michelin. The experts talked about a pilot project to introduce a traceability mechanism for goods in the EAEU, the legal regulation of labeling, systems and processes of labeling.