From the end of December 2014, lead seals are applied only to containers that are subjected to inspection during clearance of cargoes in containers at the Odessa seaport. Previously, customs officers applied seals to all import and transit containers, the press service of the Odessa seaport said.
"The cancelation of the mandatory 100 percent sealing has reduced the time that container trucks spend at the port and brought domestic customs legislation another step closer to European and international standards. The State Fiscal Service’s agencies took this step after a long period of correspondence - more than five years - between the administration of the Odessa port and the customs," the press service said.
According to the press service, the practice of application of additional seals to 100% of containers by customs inspectors was restored in 2009. "At first, they were special plastic seals that provided a relatively high degree of protection,” said Volodymyr Protsenko, the chief of the logistics and vehicle processing service at the Odessa port administration. “They finished within six months, and they began using ordinary lead seals, which are difficult to consider a degree of protection. Then, GPS seals were introduced from 2013 to 201. When GPS seals finished, they return to lead seals again."
At best, this procedure delayed container trucks on the territory of the port by 15-20 minutes; at worst, it led to situations in which customs officers said that they did not "have enough sealing devices" or "the inspector is delayed," etc.
The existing Customs Code of Ukraine states that additional customs security in the form of seals is to be applied "if necessary" and not during the processing of all cargoes, the press service said.
As reported, the Administration of Seaports of Ukraine recently announced that the speed of processing container trucks increased 2-3 times at the Odessa and Ilyichevsk ports in 2014.
